“There are people who find the very mention of money in the context of healthcare distasteful. Surely there is something elevated and ennobling about knowing that the sick will be cured regardless of their means, they say. Health, after all, is a universal human need. (So, even more, is food, although no one argues that it should be apportioned by a National Food Service.)” Daniel Hannan MEP and Douglas Carswell MP, “The Plan”
Fair play to Daniel Hannan. He’s come out fighting on the Telegraph blog section. One of his points makes particular reference to my claim that he should make his views clear in Britain and it is on this point that I’ll focus. [NB The Daniel Hannan blog section of the Telegraph site appears to be down]
Daniel’s defence, is that he has been making his views clear for many months and years. He says that he has even written a book to promote his views that has become a bestseller. It’s called The Plan – 12 Months to Renew Britain. I notice that he’s actually co-authored the book with Conservative MP for Harwich, Douglas Carswell.
I have some sympathy with Daniel in this respect. He is currently “the story”. I’ve written about how political editors in the parliamentary lobby choose one or two stories of the day and send the pack to pursue them with intensity. I know what that’s like and it can be deeply unpleasant. So, even though I fundamentally disagree with him over the future of healthcare, I genuinely understand what he must be going through now. It’s a limited defence though. He does after all, work, I presume, for the Daily Telegraph. And must therefore have had some understanding of how the press works.
And what must really gall him, is being the belle of the ball at the Conservative Spring Conference at the end of April and then dropped by David Cameron just over 3 months later. He doesn’t mention the NHS in his speech to the conference though:
[Daniel Hannan]
He does make his views clear on this programme:
[NHS health workers became aggressive]
Back to my point. I’ve said Daniel should make his views clear in the UK. He says he’s done that consistently. I can’t find a UK TV interview that he’s done where he talks about the NHS like he does in the above interview. So my challenge to him is to put himself forward to an interview with an Adam Boulton or a Jeremy Paxman. Then, I think, he should be allowed to get a well-earned holiday.
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I was in the Sky studio on Friday, rebutting one of the right wing attack myths. They’ve been desperate to get Hannan on Sky, but his office is refusing bids.
“I’ve said Daniel should make his views clear in the UK. He says he’s done that consistently. I can’t find a UK TV interview that he’s done where he talks about the NHS like he does in the above interview. So my challenge to him is to put himself forward to an interview with an Adam Boulton or a Jeremy Paxman. Then, I think, he should be allowed to get a well-earned holiday”
I’m sure he’ll gladly accept an offer from Paxman when he returns from his holiday. It is a shame that people who point out flaws in state-provided services are often smeared as unpatriotic, or worse.
Hannan claims that his book has been in the Amazon Top 30 for 9 months – I’m afraid I’ve never seen it there, it’s certainly a long way away from the top 30 at the moment – I think someone may be misleading poor Daniel.
I’ve always found the food analogy, which pops up frequently, to be somewhat absurd. No, no one is suggesting a National Food Service. But nor do I know anyone with hunger insurance. They’re just totally different goods.
No, sorry, I’ve no sympathy for Hannan. You are right, he is currently the story – but on the other hand, he wasn’t objecting when he was the story as a result of his “viral video” (see: http://thoughcowardsflinch.com/2009/03/27/who-the-fk-is-daniel-hannan/) and his cronies were crowing on facebook and the blogosphere because he “stood up to” Gordon Brown.
Hannan is a whining self-publicizing maggot the like of which British politics doesn’t need.
Friends,
Robust criticism, sure, but please try not to be abusive. Dave – I’m glad you like the site enough to use it but please try to keep the personal stuff for other sites. Thanks.
Tom, fair play, it’s your website, your rules. I apologize.
However, I don’t think I was being any more or less ‘personal’ than you were in the original article. The simple difference is that you were defending Mr. Hannan’s character, (e.g. approving of his ‘coming out fighting’, or flagging up that he’s held these views for a lot longer than a rather tendentious Press have paid him any heed for) whereas I am attacking his character.
Let me outline my points more politely.
While I agree with you that the behaviour of the Press is hardly honourable – as you say, picking one or two stories and then hounding it down – I have no sympathy for Mr. Hannan. He actively seeks to be in the public eye, and I doubt he wished for sympathy the last time he was in so much spotlight. That is, during the episode where he posted a video of him ‘telling off’ Gordon Brown to YouTube, it got millions of views, queue Press interest and Hannan bragging about it on his own blog – on the Telegraph site.
‘Fair play’ would surely be where we expect that Mr. Hannan takes the good with the bad interest?
Secondly, the behaviour of the Press is tendentious and passing (e.g. why this particular British libertarian, rather than, say, Nigel Farage?) and this makes it appear as though Daniel Hannan has preferred to slink off to the USA to spout his anti-NHS tirade. While he’s not guilty of that charge, on the other hand, this is a very privileged man – of public school and Oxbridge background – who is attacking the core institution of British redistributive politics, which guarantees healthcare for millions who (if America is anything to go by) could not afford the same standard thereof.
That is odious, and is surely deserving of personal comment – in the same way that Daniel Hannan himself implicitly passes personal comment on the seven million people in Britain in poverty through his politics. And his implicit comment is not that the British can pull themselves up by their bootstraps – it is that, those who fail to compete in the marketplace do not deserve the same rights and privileges as those who do.
@Dave Semple: “Hannan is a whining self-publicizing maggot the like of which British politics doesn’t need.”
and Peter Mandelson is…….?
You see Dave, you see what you’ve started
Be nice dear friends x x
@ Charlie, no argument from me – but again, I withdraw the comments as Tom chided so nicely.
Touche !
Live by the media, die by the media…stay out of real politics entirely!
Seemed ideal to me, funny that the only contribution hes made was to put Brown back in the game.
Is it me or is Dan Hannan’s intonation reminiscent of Tony Blair?
You may not agree with Daniel but you must triumph his example of free speech. I do find it interesting if a person questions the NHS they are seen as anti British and an ‘eccentric’.
We have all no doubt used the NHS and benefited from it in some way. I know I have but I must admit the experience could have been better and should be. Even from the peripheral I could see many examples of wasted time and unneeded bureaucracy. The NHS has been bloated to the detriment of the patient; there are more bureaucrats than doctors and nurses. The NHS plunders billions of pounds and yet the waiting lists are longer and my auntie has to lay in the corridor and the wards still needs more nurses. Yes it’s a good thing that the NHS is free at the point of care but why does Hannan get shot down for daring to open a debate on how to make it better?
The main arguments against him are a. millions of people with not be able to get treatment and b. why doesn’t he say it here instead of the US? Well a. he has never said the poor will not be treated he even said of the Singapore model he examples “Nor can it be repeated often enough that Singapore- like every developed country – pays for the healthcare of those citizens who can’t afford it. No one I know wants a system where the poor go untended”. B- he has been saying it for a long time, he’s written a book about it. No one listens to him because criticising the NHS is treason to pretty much everyone.
I applaud Tom for his limited defence but I applaud Hannan more because whether you like it or not it’s got an audience.
Oh by the way I have a lot of respect for doctors and nurses but I would them to work in and for me to be cared by a better and more efficient health care system.
I don’t think so. Having a blog doesn’t mean you’re on the payroll by any means. I also recall that the Telegraph allows anyone to register for a blog on their platform.
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