Changing the Tone of Key Debates

Recently, we've seen big debates about the NHS and about drugs. What has struck me most about these debates is the irrational, emotional responses of some to those two issues. The NHS is seen by so many as a "good thing" - a benign entity - whilst drugs are bad. Really bad. 

Go ask someone what the NHS means to them. They might say that the NHS is all about all those doctors or nurses working hard to make others better. It might be about the healthcare offered by the NHS to themselves or their family members. What shines through is that emotional connection to the good work that the NHS does. Which misses - completely - the point of what the NHS is. The NHS is merely the bureaucratic means by which healthcare is distributed in this country. The NHS is simply a manmade institution. You don't have to have the NHS to get hard work from health workers, and you don't have to have it to get healthcare. You can tell; other countries don't have the NHS, yet they still have functioning, effective healthcare systems.

Likewise, go ask people what they think about drugs. A lot will tell you that drugs are evil. That they destroy lives, families and whole communities. Which just isn't true. Drug-related crime does all that; drugs themselves don't. You can tell. See, drugs tend to be inanimate objects. They are chemicals, in powder or pill format. They can't mug a granny. They can't destroy a community. They can't do anything other than be ingested by human beings. Rather like the paracetamol in your medicine cabinet. You can rage against drugs as much as you like. But you'd be raging against the wrong things, my friends. 

We need to remove the emotion attached to these inanimate objects and institutions if we are ever going to have a real debate  on them. This may sound like pure semantics, but it is actually crucial. Just look at the hysterical response to Hannan's comment that he wouldn't wish the NHS on anyone. Look at what he said and, more importantly, what he didn't say. At no point did he say that that he didn't want people to have access to good, affordable healthcare. And at no point does his comment diss any of those healthcare professionals who work within the NHS. Yet Hannan has been painted as some sort of demented demagogue who doesn't want to have healthcare and who is, unpatriotically, doing down one of our greatest national achievements. The detachment from reality of this response to Hannan should be obvious to everyone who has had any interaction with the NHS in this country. Yet because of the confusion of what we mean when we talk about reform of the NHS, people assume we are talking about the abolition of healthcare in this country. Rather than asking for reform to a grossly inefficient bureaucratic system that is restricting healthcare professionals in this country. 

If we do want less hysterical debates on this, then we need to be more precise in the what we say. Rather than dismissing the NHS, we need to talk about how we want to improve affordable healthcare in this country through minimising bureaucracy. We're not banning the NHS and closing hospitals; we are cutting red tape and improving frontline medical care for people. Likewise, we aren't talking about decriminalising drugs. We are talking about reducing drug related crime by liberalising the legislation around drug use. 

Is this spin? Sure. Of course it is. And, unfortunately, spin is necessary in this day and age if you want to have any sort of impact on the national debate. Because look at how quick the defenders of the status quo are to fall back on their tried and tested spin techniques. If you criticise the NHS you are unpatriotic. Rather than having to defend our comments in the face of such accusations, those who would consider more radical solutions to our country's problems that simple maintenance of the status quo need to take control of the debate. We need to be challenging the likes of Andy Burnham to explain why they oppose reform to an often dangerous and sometimes fatal system of healthcare provision. And we need to be asking the forces of knee-jerk reaction in this country why they oppose potential solutions to drug-related crimes outright without even considering them.