Sounds like the non-existent British NHS where getting an appointment to see a doctor is about as likely as meeting the Loch Ness Monster for a spot of tea and crumpets.

I'm currently being treated by the NHS and they've been excellent, and I got a same day appointment with a doctor last week.

Admittedly I did phone the surgery at 0800 to get it. But this is awful hyperbole.

Ironically when we were living in Ireland and my daughter was going to have to wait 16 months to get a suspicious growth checked for cancer it was the UK that made it possible for us to go to a private clinic near Belfast and have her checked in a week. And it still wasn't even expensive. Free healthcare isn't actually free if you die waiting.

It used to be the jewel in the crown of empire though.

Thatcher and the more recent 14 years of UK Conservative government seemed to have kicked it bloody and senseless like Alex and his droogs from the Korova Milkbar.

Only the Conservatives? You think Blair, Brown, and now Starmer did great things for the country? Give me a break. The whole political class is rotten. And the upcoming "Reform UK" is a joke, to say the least.

> You think Blair, Brown, and now Starmer did great things for the country?

No, but apparently you think that I think that. Perhaps you might like to work through that again ...

Leaving the state of the UK as a whole to one side, the NHS was actively kicked like a dog prior to Blair who did at least stop kicking it and attempt to reverse the decline with some, albeit limited, success.

eg: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1871752/

The comment I replied to only places blame on Conservatives. There is a name for this: "lying by omission".

The NHS and the Empire don't really overlap. It was founded right at the end of the war, shortly before the UK started having to divest from its colonies, and of course it was never a thing in any of the non-UK colonies!

I often think the NHS was only founded as a result of the war, as an extension of the military and civilian healthcare needs for injury care. German bombers didn't respect the British class system.

Certainly not my experience. Phone up for an appointment and get it same day.

Seems to be a postcode lottery

Please don't tell me the grass isn't really greener in the Netherlands. Moving over there (from SE England) is one of my dreams.

It’s nice here! My kids can bike to school and not be killed. But the health care is… meh.

And yet you pay more per capita than the UK