None of the above will be popular with the electorate.
In some respects the NHS is a shibboleth - any attack upon it will be seen as an attack upon the body politic itself.
This is something that the Conservatives only properly grasped after the wilderness years, but it is becoming increasingly unhelpful.
What we currently face is actually even worse.
'Care' is a generic word, the kind of 'care' that we think is within the purview of the NHS - cradle to grave, that sort of thing - actually isn't. Much of the 'care' we are actually more likely to receive will be provided, or not, by our County rather than our Country.
Sorry if this seems like an 'obvious thing is obvious' kind of point to make, but as has been readily pointed out to us in all-too-recent history, lots of people don't seem to understand how the world works even at all in the tiniest degree.
We are even at a point where the
actual NHS is saying, in effect, don't give
us so much money, put more of it into social care, but it falling on deaf ears because the 'noise' would only register that the NHS was receiving less.
There is a serious debate to be had about this issue, but I fear we are losing the very ability to conduct one.
