Speaking of reality TV star Jade Goody, Max Pemberton wrote in The Telegraph of another facet of the mockery which is the NHS, and how once again it differs between England and the so-called Celtic nations:
But what she also did last week was to expose the inconsistencies in healthcare in the UK, which make a mockery of the NHS founding principle of equality. On the back of Jade's high-profile case, the sexual health charity Marie Stopes International called on the NHS to lower the age at which women are first offered a smear test to 20. This had been the age when they first began screening until 2003 when it was raised by NHS cancer screening services to 25, after research suggested a negative effect.
This was because experts said that in their early 20s, there was evidence that women had natural changes in their cervical cells, which could be mistaken for pre-cancerous changes. This would lead to unnecessary treatment, which can lead to complications in later life, including difficulties carrying a baby to term. But on closer examination, the debate that Jade has sparked is concerned with the NHS in England only, because the rest of the UK screens at the age of 20. Since devolution within the NHS, there have been numerous examples of inconsistency and unfairness.
Prescription charges, access to medication, waiting times, hospital parking charges; the NHS is no longer consistent across the nation. In a nationalised service, there is something fundamentally wrong if such discrepancies exist. There remains debate about the appropriate age at which screening should begin, with no consensus across other European countries. But it seems ludicrous that people who are served by the same institution receive different treatment based on where they live, when the very ideological underpinning of that institution is the abolition of inequity within healthcare.
Whatever the correct age is to begin screening, young women somewhere in the UK are being let down by the devolved NHS. Either it is those in England, who should be offered it at a younger age and are therefore being exposed to an increased risk of a potentially fatal disease. Or, it is those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, who are risking unnecessary, invasive treatment that can result in them miscarrying in the future.
As we often parrot on this blog, it must be remembered that Scotland and Wales have democratic devolved governing bodies, and that England is ruled by the UK Parliament, headed by Gordon Brown, a man who represents a Scottish constituency and is therefore unaccountable to his constituents for around 75% of legislation his government passes - as they have their own parliament.
Aided and abetted by his Scottish Raj and MPs supposedly representing English constituencies, who spurn any recognition of England as a nation, Gordon Brown makes a mockery of democratic representation in England - and if you speak up, he and his cohorts are likely to accuse you of racism.
Whatever your background, WAKE UP to the abuse you are suffering as a citizen of England and the lies that are being spun, the smoke and mirrors employed by the UK Government and the Opposition parties, to keep intact the "UK", which now works against every man, woman and child resident in England. England is being broken up, regionalised out of existence - and we, the electorate across England, are the losers.
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