How far we've fallen II

Then.

Now.

With Britain all but bankrupted by a feckless political class and their vassalage to the European Empire, Professor John Appleby, of the King's Fund not only doesn't think that the fiscal rat hole known as the NHS should be abolished, he wants its budget doubled.  That will make make the job scheme for bureaucrats health service cost six times as much as national defence.  Remember defence?  The primary reason that the government exists in the first place?  Neither does anyone else, apparently.

Welcome to Britain; once the seat of the world's greatest empire, wielder of the mightiest navy ever seen, mother of parliaments, founder of the Industrial Revolution, royal throne of kings, scepter'd isle, earth of majesty, seat of Mars, other Eden, demi-paradise, fortress built by Nature for herself against infection and the hand of war, and precious stone set in the silver sea–now reduced to a dodgy health plan with a nation attached as an afterthought.

Britain a century ago:

Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country for ever without a passport or any sort of official permission. He could exchange his money for any other currency without restriction or limit. He could buy goods from any country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. For that matter, a foreigner could spend his life in this country without permit and without informing the police. Unlike the countries of the European continent, the state did not require its citizens to perform military service. An Englishman could enlist, if he chose, in the regular army, the navy, or the territorials. He could also ignore, if he chose, the demands of national defence. Substantial householders were occasionally called on for jury service. Otherwise, only those helped the state who wished to do so. The Englishman paid taxes on a modest scale: nearly £200 million in 1913-14, or rather less than 8 per cent. of the national income. The state intervened to prevent the citizen from eating adulterated food or contracting certain infectious diseases. It imposed safety rules in factories, and prevented women, and adult males in some industries, from working excessive hours. The state saw to it that children received education up to the age of 13. Since 1 January 1909, it provided a meagre pension for the needy over the age of 70. Since 1911, it helped to insure certain classes of workers against sickness and unemployment. This tendency towards more state action was increasing. Expenditure on the social services had roughly doubled since the Liberals took office in 1905. Still, broadly speaking, the state acted only to help those who could not help themselves. It left the adult citizen alone.

A J P Taylor