Yesterday we brought you news about the bizarre battle between American rightwingers spreading misinformation about the NHS, and British users of the NHS who were actually quite proud of it.
24 hours later and Tweetminster (which monitors the twitter updates of MPs and PPCs and provides a service where you can search them) reports
65 #welovethenhs tweets from MPs & PPCS. 8 from @UKLabour MPs & 4 PPCs, 3 from @LibDems MPs & 3 PPCs, 1 from @Conservatives PPC
Our own Nick_Clegg was amongst them, as was Prime Minister Brown (whose tweet looks like it’s had help from a speechwriter):
NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there.
Judged by how fast these memes gather pace, both Clegg and Brown responded pretty late actually. Taking part was a no-brainer, almost everyone on Twitter was doing it, and it took a day for them to get into it.
On google, Lib Dems have dominated the search for the last day: google #welovetheNHS and LDV’s post from yesterday still comes fairly near the top – we were second after Twitter itself for quite a while. Put in the spaces and the top blog is Charlotte Gore’s acid response to the campaign. Charlotte raises a very valid point of course, that if it hadn’t been for completely overblown, factually wrong criticisms of the NHS from America, it’s hard to imagine that the entire UK twitter-base would have spontaneously exploded into unequivocal support for the institution.
Our own Mark Pack reports that the origin of the storm of support was sitcom writer Graham Linehan, although we’re a little a baffled at his assertion that Pack doesn’t look a character from the IT Crowd. Whatever can he mean? [/deadpan]
Comedy songwriter Mitch Benn pointed out in the middle of the night that a US guy seemed to think that all of the tweets were coming from the army of bureaucrats who run the NHS. And as I type he’s heading into the Now Show recording studio to sing a song about – we’ll find out on Friday night at 6.30pm and Saturday at 12.30pm whether it makes the final cut.
And a few Lib Dem bloggers have weighed in too:
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15 Comments
I don’t know when Nick Clegg tweeted his support but I can tell you the PM did so yesterday afternoon. It didn’t take him “a day to get on it”.
Of course Clegg and Brown have responded – in some sense Cameron has responded too! But are you sure that’s because they generally #welovetheNHS or that they’ve done it as this bizarre cult has proven it’s an electoral liability not too?
And how can Charlotte’s post be described as “acid”?!
Sadly Labour Matters has a point. We can’t really criticise Brown’s tweet when it was much quicker and no more bland than Clegg’s effort.
Having read Charlotte’s article, Sara has a point too. It may be critical, but it isn’t acerbic.
Charlotte’s post is the only one on the subject that actually makes sense, all others could do with treatment for chronic patellar reflex syndrome, whether on the NHS or private. Both the Dan Hannan’s and the Graham Linehan’s stop decent health care reform in the UK.
FWIW, having lived in Switzerland, the UK and the US, I would say none are great, all do their job. I would probably prefer to be poor and ill in the UK and rich and ill in Switzerland, and averagely wealthy and averagely healthy in the US.
But, as almost everyone says, but nobody listens, both the US and the UK should be looking at Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Singapore for health care solutions
I think acid sums up how she comes across. Although judging by her response to Mark V’s blog it wasn’t how she meant to come across.
Twice? No, three times more comment on ‘Liberal Bureaucracy’!
That opening line totally misrepresents the rest of the blog post, which is entirely my fault. On the plus side, I did get the Tory’s online community’s editor into trouble with the Evening Standard because of it, which wins back some brownie points somewhere doesn’t it?:)
I work with the NHS.
I have been treated by the NHS as have my family.
I love the NHS.
I hate the bare-faced cheek of those seeking to denigrate the NHS.
Communist? Fascist? Easy words to bandy about for those who never suffered under either.
True – the NHS needs reform. Lots of it.
I’d far rather have it (even in its unreformed state) than rely on rapacious insurance firms who pull the plug on your cancer treatment when it looks like the shareholders divvy wil go down, or on homespun remedies for cancer if you have no insurance. I wonder – do these NHS-haters have their axe to grind? Shares in insurance or healthcare maybe? Like they care about very brainy guys in wheelchairs!!!
A bad healthcare system? Rubbish – in our survey, eight out of ten health tourists said they preferred it!!
I actually have private health insurace, through work. My experiences of claiming, shopping around and variable premiums based on risk make me wary.
It’s totally disingenuous to characterise #WeLoveTheNHS as uncritical. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing that people have been defensive in the face of out-and-out lies told about our country.
I would like to add my support to the wonderful health care service we have in this country. When it comes to needing medical attention I would rather receive it here in the good old UK than over the Atlantic in the very misinformed USA
If you wish to know what the majority of people in this country think of the NHS, you can be sure that David Cameron does!
“On google, Lib Dems have dominated the search for the last day: google #welovetheNHS and LDV’s post from yesterday still comes fairly near the top – we were second after Twitter itself for quite a while.”
Am I alone in being concerned about the way politics seems to be heading?
Clearly becoming the “top Google search” may now be a substitute for actual policy. That’s the only conclusion I can draw from Progressive Vision (aka Liberal Vision’s) latest journey into self-parody “say no the NHS” which offers no alternative suggestions but does aim to become “the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter”.
thank all that is good in this country that we have the nhs, the nhs is the best thing this country has done i have
NEVER been to a nhs doctor and felt they were incompetant or felt neglected i am thankful to be a citizen of this country for many reasons but one of the biggest reasons why we love our country is knowing no matter what i can get help no matter what my personal circumstance the americans are bitter and ignorant take a look your own micheal moore he proved our point for us i would rather pay tax than yearly premiums, out of my £10,200 annual wage i pay just under £500 in tax money well spent. scare tactics don’t work in our contry we are too smart they need to look at the all the other countries that have national healthcare how much better off there citizens are.
the NHS might not be perfect but what the americans forget WE CAN CHOOSE BETWEEN PRIVATE OR NHS HEALTHCARE we are not stupid