Re: Another thing...
The clap thing is just the moden equivalent of the "two minutes hate" described in Orwell's "1984". Its a cumpulsory show of enthusiasm towards the goals of the state. (Its not an Orwell invention, either -- it furst surfaced during WW1.)
Protecting the NHS is probably the only goal the British people could unite behind. They've been left so cynical that by years of attacks on their collective psyche that anything else is likely to be met with derision by one segmet of society or another. As for why the NHS needs protecting, this is also a masterpiece of Orwellian logic. The NHS has the target of years of reforms designed to introduce market mechanisms to make it more efficient. (This appears to be primarily finding ways to close down large city center hospitals so that the facilites and land could be sold off to developers but there's also plenty of other ways for the private sector to feed off the carcass.) The UK market has been seen as a prime growth area by a least on large US health insurance company (we're eager to export the benefits of consumer choice in health provision that we enjoy in the US) and they've actually been advising government on this matter. Unfortuantely, despite successive governments' best efforts and the constant media barrage of negativity thats worked so well in the past to soften up the puiblic's attitude towards privatization the British public seem remarkably disinterested in giving up the NHS. (So just gently starve it of resources...plenty of time...)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
