I am a very old man so I have strong memories of Britain before the NHS. I remember my sister dying of TB in a workhouse infirmary and me almost succumbing to whopping cough b/c we couldn't afford a doctor.

As a small boy, I remember hearing screams coming from a home on our street where a woman was dying of cancer without any medicine to relieve her pain. It was a barbaric world where money decided who lived and who died because that was the formula for medical care.

In fact it wasn't until I was 18 that I saw a physician and that was because World War Two was on and I had volunteered to join the RAF. The people of my generation sacrificed so much during the Great Depression and through the World War. The NHS was our reward, our peace time dividend. It was also our solemn pledge to future generations that we would be a civilized nation that would treat all citizens as worthy of care and compassion.

The NHS is for me as great as Magna Carta because it freed millions from the tyranny of sickness and poverty to move forward and lead productive lives. No one can fool me about these new measures. They are not about making the NHS more efficient, more accessible and more accountable to today's economic situation; its all about profit. Now a small minority of people and corporations are going to get very rich while making Britain a less healthy and vibrant nation. The names of all that voted for these provisions should be cut into a memorial stone to commemorate the death of Britain's greatest achievement the NHS. It was a tide that raised all boats

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