Bernie Ribeiro, the new president of the Royal College of Surgeons, has said in an interview that the health care is unsustainable in it's current form and should be paid for via a social insurance system. He said patients should pay a proportion of the cost of their treatment and take out insurance to cover that amount.

What he fails to mention is that the system has proved itself for decades and set a model by which other countries aspired to. The difference now is greed. Pharaceutical companies are screwing the taxpayer with increasingly hyped up prices for drugs purchased throught the NHS while the government is delibratly runnig the service down in order to justify increased privatisation.

Meanwhile, while claiming that the country can't afford a free NHS, the government hands vast sums to the arms industry, to the tune of at least £763m per year. But then perhaps death and distruction is a greater priority for the government than the health of the population who provide the cach they so freely pass on to their friends at BAe etc.

The 2005 DSEi arms trade show is just weeks away. Last time round the taxpayer footed the £4.4 million pound bill for policing the event which see's thousands of buyers from the world coming to make dark deals with the death traders. This is clearly more important than a few hospitals and nurses. Long live the arms trade - death to the NHS!