The envy of the world?

"The envy of the world" is what a lot of British people call the NHS, the National Health Service, the publicly-funded healthcare system that, since 1948, has been funded out of general taxation. "Free at the point of delivery" means that patients are not presented with a bill at the doctor's surgery or in a hospital, although they do have to pay for some charges levied by dentists and opticians, and pay for prescriptions (not in Wales, though). Everyone living in the UK is eligible for treatment, no matter how rich or how poor, whether you're working or not. Each of the four countries in the UK has its own national health service and are independent of each other. 

However, the coronavirus pandemic has catapulted the NHS and its staff and system into the limelight, and the eyes of the world are regularly focused upon it.

From where I'm sitting, I find what is happening over in the UK quite incredible. Mind-boggling. The envy of the world cannot supply its staff with enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep them safe. Many doctors, nurses and other staff members have died looking after British patients. Here are some of them:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52242856

Note how many are not British born. They are the kind of people that Brexit voters would like to see kicked out of the country. "British jobs for British people." That's their mantra.

And then funding... Over the years, the current party in power, the Conservatives, also called 'Tories", a slang 17th century Irish word for 'highwayman', cut funding to the NHS left, right and centre.

Take a look at this: https://nhsfunding.info/symptoms/10-effects-of-underfunding/cuts-to-frontline-services/
From which I quote the following: The budget for public health services is now £850 million lower than in 2015/16 and by 2021 the budget will have been cut by 25% from its 2015/16 level in real-terms.

Or read what Polly Toynbee had to say about this recently. (I apologise in advance for the distressing photo of a moronic, obese oaf at the top of the page: 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/25/boris-johnson-conservatives-nhs-funding

Nurses now need to pay to do a three-year training course, which means they won't be earning any money for three years and will be in debt by the end of it. The shortage of nurses already stands at 43,000. And don't forget the Brexit voters - they don't want foreigners working in the UK. "British jobs for British people."

Funding...the coronavirus crisis has seen about £50 million raised or donated by various people, including a 99-year-old pensioner who originally wanted to raise £1,000 by walking round his garden 100 times. He's now achieved this and, because so many people have donated money, he said he will keep on going until they stop. So far he has raised £21 million:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52333127

Or the 'toff', the current Duke of Westminster, the richest man in the UK, who has donated £12.5 million.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/apr/15/duke-of-westminster-donates-nhs-coronavirus-fight-hugh-grosvenor

Or Hans Rausing, the Swedish Tetrapak millionaire, who has donated £16.5m, with another £9m to come in the next 6 months. Another bloody foreigner. How can Brexit voters accept such money?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8164985/Tetrapak-billionaire-Hans-Rausing-wife-Julia-donate-16-5million-fight-against-coronavirus.html

And the best thing is that...this money cannot be spent on PPE as donated money cannot be spent on 'core' NHS work, only on 'extras'. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8231259/Britain-raised-50million-NHS-not-one-penny-protective-gear.html

Fortunately, Turkey, that country so hated by Brexit voters as they assume that the entire population of that country is just waiting to join the EU so they can all decamp to the UK where they will simultaneously 'sponge off the state' and 'take away our jobs'...Turkey donated two loads of PPE to the UK. My God.. how that must stick in the craw of Brexit voters:
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-sends-second-batch-of-medical-supplies-to-uk-153778

And the Bundeswehr, the German Armed Forces, yes, those bloody Nazis, the people that make Brexit voters foam at the mouth, donated 60 ventilators to the UK:
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/04/no-military-has-done-more-corona-stricken-allies-germanys/164671/

One in 7 people who enter hospital with the coronavirus die; 50% of those coronavirus patients who end up in intensive care die.

The envy of the world? Seriously? That shambles?

And the country is being led by a buffoon who thought that the rules did not apply to him. He shook hands with coronavirus patients when he visited a hospital and he and his colleagues did not stick to the rules of 'social distancing' at 10 Downing Street. Rules don't apply to him. Oh, no. 

Then he ends up in an NHS hospital, being looked after by a female nurse from New Zealand and a male nurse from Portugal. More bloody foreigners. And he is still insisting on Brexit in January. Come hell or high water. He should be made to pay for his treatment, seeing as how he didn't stick to the rules. Moron. An absolute disgrace of a 'national leader'. He should be ashamed of himself. The problem is that he doesn't have the self-awareness to realise jsut how awful his behaviour is. 

There are things I do not like about the German health system, and I may touch on that in the future, but, frankly, I am very glad I am sitting over here watching the ship that is the UK sinking slowly. And just wait and see what happens after 1 January next year, when the ship hits the iceberg that is Brexit.