The Oldie

American NHS? Let's call the whole thing off

For an institution widely believed to be on life support, the health service shows signs of vibrant health when it comes to inclusivity.

Take me, as the late Max Miller might have put it. Seldom does a month pass without the NHS – ‘our NHS’, technically, if only to Tory politicians with lavish private health insurance – graciously including me in one way or another.

Over the last couple of years, I have been such a regular at the Royal Free Hospital in north London that I

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Oldie

The Oldie3 min read
Tessa Castro
IN COMPETITION No 305 you were invited to write a poem called Dawn Chorus. I liked Charles Owen’s description of the cock or rooster as ‘Hot hacksaw-headed, braggart-breasted,/ Liveried in flame’. Wally Smith was right to call ‘A jay’s call like a bl
The Oldie4 min read
How Your Garden Grows
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life By Jason Roberts riverrun £25 The year is 1707. Separated by some 700 miles (as the Corvus comix flies), two naturalists are born, destined for world fame. Social climbing (sorry, mobilit
The Oldie2 min read
The Dabchick
Upon this promise did he raise his chin Like a dive-dapper peering through the wave Who, being look’d on, ducks quickly in, So offers he to give what she did crave But when her lips were ready for the pay He winks and turns his lips another way. Will

Related Books & Audiobooks