Eastleigh

I'm off to Eastleigh this morning. I don't really want to go. One of my kids is coming for lunch but I'm hoping that Eastleigh may be something of a turning point.

You see the politics of this country are truly rotten. We are, to be blunt, governed by a bunch of toffs. It just cannot be the case that the only people with sufficient talent to run the country are from the top echelons of society. I wouldn't actually mind if they had the interests of the people at heart but they don't. They are hell bent on furthering the interests of their toffy mates. Things are very little different from the days when only the landed gentry were sent to parliament.

The battle over the NHS is a microcosm if the divide between the toffs and the ordinary British mortals. The NHS is a key feature of Britishness. It is one of the things we most admire about ourselves. It's one of the only things we are prepared to brag about. Bragging is not something we British do. It's just not British - unless you're a British toff. But we feel comfortable in bragging about the NHS because it is not about being elite, it's not about high achievement, it's about fairness.

And now I pause because I realise I have been calling myself British. I do that because I think of myself as British and the NHS is British. The values of the NHS are recognised throughout our small island. Britain and the NHS are inseparable - or they should be. But my concern is focused on the fact that I am actually English and I live in England. Because it is in England that the toffs in Downing Street and the toffs that came before them are embarking on a major change to our NHS.

For those that have not been following what has been going on, you can be forgiven. People argue about when it started because there was no starting gun but in recent history all the main political parties have been following the same policy for the NHS. Without many of you noticing and deliberately operating under the radar, politicians have put the NHS into a cut-throat market. The true purpose of this is to privatise the provision of NHS care - though they never quite say so. Since they don't actually tell you that this is what they intend, they don't actually tell you the reason either. If pressed you will hear something about the NHS being inefficient and getting private companies to get rid of all those inefficiencies that blight our healthcare. The only problem with this is that it is just not true. The NHS is not inefficient. It has been without doubt the most cost-effective healthcare system in the world.

So what is the real reason they want to privatise the NHS? One reason is that we are run by toffs and toffs want to help other toffs. The private companies that will run the NHS ensure that this happens by nefarious schemes to influence the political class.

There are other reasons. They want to move the NHS away from tax funding to insurance funding. Instead of paying your taxes and relying on the NHS to be there when you need it, they will be requiring you to insure. Nobody has yet told you this. I cannot point to a document where you can find any evidence to support my view. But trust me that this is the only thing that makes sense of what they are doing.

Now I could go on but I need to get to Eastleigh. But let me say this: when the forests were threatened, people went into their woods, tied ribbons to the trees and the woodlands were saved. When local hospitals are threatened, people do the same. When the whole NHS is threatened, people don't seem to notice.

So please wake up out there. Realise what is happening and get on down to Eastleigh and persuade those people of middle England to turn the tide by voting for the National Health Action Party.