The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

Link: Telegraph | News | Baby dies and five are infected as bacteria strain infests neonatal unit.

Imagine the scandal if this tragedy were to occur at a private hospital. “Our NHS” kills with impunity however. Bill Bryson once wrote that Britain is one place where Communism might actually have worked, because the people are so willing to queue. He underestimated their docility. They are also tolerant of State incompetence, even – apparently – unto death. People routinely die of diseases spread in filthy NHS hospitals. This story is the norm, not the exception. Only the poignancy of the death of an infant elevates it to a modest headline.

Every day I wait for the British people to “draw the line”. Every day, I fear that Bryson’s wry observation had more truth in it than he knew.