We are told that Churchill was our greatest all-time leader
Inspiring the nation to combat the marauding Nazi hoards
But the post war British voters soon sent Churchill packing
And put the Labour Party in charge of the Westminster board.

The pre-war years in Britain were a living nightmare
Of unemployment and hunger and despair
So having seen off Hitler’s fascist armies
The British workers demanded something profoundly more fair.

There was still respect for Churchill’s war-time leadership
But his Tory domestic policies were simply beyond the pale
It was Clem Attlee’s welfare state that workers demanded
A national Health Service that was not up for sale.

Of course the medical profession was largely against it
Fearing they would lose their profitable hold
So the Labour Government was forced to compromise
By stuffing the BMA’s greedy mouths full of gold.

Despite Britain’s entrenched system of privilege
The National Health Service was soon on a winning roll
And even the Tories were forced to nurture it
When they returned to govern at the next poll.

But then came the Thatcherite counter-revolution
Where the free market was hailed as the new god
And the nationalised industries were one by one privatised
These Chicago School devotees just didn’t give a sod.

But The National Health Service was so dearly cherished
That the stampede for privatised wealth
Was temporarily halted by an upsurge of public anger
So the privatisation would have to proceed by stealth.

Blair’s New Labour was hugely incriminated
By introducing the Public-Private Initiative scam
Whereby private corporations would part fund new buildings
Which would prove to be a costly breech in the dam.

And while we were busy bombing the Iraqis and the Afghans
And becoming preoccupied with the facile war on terror
We took our eyes off the corporate manoeuvring
And that may well prove to be a game changing error.

For under the guise of a more efficient health service
The corporate sector now has a toe in the door
And it doesn’t take a Karl Marx or Albert Einstein
To see it will now be quite different for the rich and the poor.

There will still be a national health service
But the wealthy will choose to opt out
And the remaining service will become fatally underfunded
Thereby losing its all-encompassing clout.

Piece by piece will be farmed out to the private sector
It’s already started with the catering and cleaning
And now some clinical services are being put out for tender
Soon the national health service will have a totally different meaning.

The moral of this story is quite obvious
The folly of squeezing profit out of the public domain
And the urgency of reclaiming our public utilities
Before the post war settlement is finally washed down the drain.

We’ve seen that the unregulated capitalist market
Has caused the global economy and its workforce so much pain
Now is the moment to recalibrate
And put human welfare before corporate gain.

And we must be resolute in our defence of our public health service
Knowing that the bloody corporate vultures will be circling again and again and again.