[bugglebeetle]

Yes, because the UK’s two dominant (and right wing) parties have been actively sabotaging it for years, chasing after a despicable dream of homegrown middlemen and fraudsters, envious as they are of the unchecked criminality of their friends from across the pond. Quelle surprise, things have gotten worse.

[dash2]

Spending grew about 8% a year under New Labour on average, which doesn't seem like sabotage to me.

[eru]

Also if both dominant political parties are supposedly so against the NHS, why don't they just abolish it?

[HPsquared]

They need to be sneaky. Same with a lot of other unpopular policies which nevertheless (somehow...) have support from "both sides".

[tremon]

They need the public to (nominally) assent to it first, otherwise it'd be suicide. They're using the republican playbook: overburden the sector with tasks and regulations while underfunding it, and allow for private competition that is not subject to the same regulatory burden. Then in a decade or so, you can claim that the "free market" works better and the public won't kick up too much of a fuss.

[eru]

That seems like a weird conspiracy. Why would the parties secretly want to do something that the voters don't like? Are they not power-hungry?

By the way, how is that the republican playbook? What does any of this have to do with the desire to remove King Charles as the head of government? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republicanism_in_the_United_Ki...