The healthcare debate in America has taken a dramatic new twist after questions were raised in the US about whether Britain’s NHS was a breeding ground for terrorists with references to the Glasgow Airport bomb plot.
As the row over President Barack Obama’s plan to extend medical insurance to his country’s poor rages on, the Republican right has been accused of scaremongering as it cites the NHS as an example of a failed “socialised” healthcare system.
The latest development came on Fox News, a right-wing channel, which discussed whether the acceptance of foreign doctors and nurses into the NHS was a gateway for Muslim terrorists.
It referred to the Glasgow Airport bomb plot and pointed out how eight suspects were either NHS doctors or medical staff.
As images of the burning airport were shown on screen, columnist Jerry Bower noted how half of NHS medical staff came from abroad and that there was a “real vulnerability” for state-run bureaucracies, where it was “easy to hide” in the system.
“A state-run healthcare enterprise is bureaucractic. The terrorists have shown over and over again whether it’s dealing with INS (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) or airport security, they are very good at ... figuring out how to get round state bureaucracies.”
At home, David Cameron was forced to rebuke Daniel Hannan after the outspoken Tory MEP went on US television to denounce the NHS, saying: “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
Mr Cameron denounced Mr Hannan’s views as “eccentric”, insisting the NHS was his party’s “number one priority”.
But last night he suffered another blow as a second Tory MEP, Roger Helmer, came out in support of Mr Hannan.
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