They filled him in very quickly didnt they ? It is as clear as mud what the plan is but dopey donny should have been briefed to keep his gob shut until the deal was done. Incidentally Hunt has written a book on privatising the NHS and farage is bankrolled by an insurance "tycoon". People are starting to join up the dots.
"As senior Tories such as Jeremy Hunt also condemned the remarks, Trump later said that the NHS 'would not be on the table' because the health service was 'not trade'."
You really got to marvel at that level of mendacity. Of course, health service is not trade, and no one ever said otherwise. And yet, the nationalized health service would be regarded as an obstacle to trade, and you could bet the house they'd try to remove that obstacle. After all, there's a pile of money in the NHS, and they'd love to redirect that into private coffers.
Thanks for the info on Hunt's book - I didn't know that.
"The Health Secretary is listed as one of the authors, though he has previously denied that he wrote the chapter on the NHS and says it does not reflect his views.
The book was presented as a whole and chapters are not marked with individual authors, however.
“We should fund patients, either through the tax system or by way of universal insurance, to purchase health care from the provider of their choice,” the book says on page 74. [...]
It adds on page 78: “Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private and public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain.”
Put together by Douglas Carswell, the book’s authors also included Tory MPs Michael Gove, Daniel Hannan, Greg Clark, David Gauke, and Kwasi Kwarteng. [...]
“Patients and staff will have serious concerns about these remarks and have a right to know whether you remain of this view,” he asked at the time.
Mr Hunt has since repeatedly said he believes in the principles of the NHS. He says the Conservatives are “the party of the NHS”.
The book can be read in full online
here.
From the book, p74 (last link in the quote above):
In five years’ time Britain will have one of the most expensive health services in the world, but one which still fails to meet public expectations. The problem with the NHS is not one of resources. Rather, it is that the system remains a centrally run, state monopoly, designed over half a century ago.
The NHS pretty much is the cheapest health service in the developed world, at about half the per-capita price Americans pay. That CANNOT STAND!
Staggering mendacity, sold under the banner of "direct democracy".
