Jeremy Clarkson reneges on NHS criticism after needing urgent treatment
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jeremy-clarkson-hospital-nhs-health-b2844228.html
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
Jeremy Clarkson reneges on NHS criticism after needing urgent treatment
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jeremy-clarkson-hospital-nhs-health-b2844228.html
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
48 Comments
Should make Farage have to try and flee a war zone next, see if that changes his views on immigration.
I mean ok. I would say that just because they did their job when you needed them to be time doesn’t make them immune to criticism. I said something much similar to him the other day. The NHS does need a massive rethink. They are also sometimes very good in an emergency. It’s not black and white.
Boomer conservatives capable of realising they’re wrong only when their idiocy affects them personally.
No reneging allowed, he should pay out of his own pocket.
Christ all sense of nuance is lost now isn’t it?
Yes, Jeremy Clarkson is a twat.
However, he can be right that there are critical structural issues within the NHS yet recognise that the staff that treated him were excellent.
How did that title get past the editor? Very weird use of “reneges”.
The problem with the NHS is that it is both a place full of brilliant people who give you the care you need and an infuriatingly bureaucratic system of shoulder shrugging gatekeepers determined to minimise your symptoms and frustrate your pathway to getting that treatment.
My experience is that the clinical care in the NHS is excellent but what they have done to access primary care is an utter disaster that is putting more strain on Acute care centres as a result.
Because it’s easy to rag on something you never needed to use until you do, he just likes to moan
NHS is great on anything urgent.
It’s the GPs, waitlists, non-life threatening treatments where it falls apart.
Pretty simple really, the essential stuff has remained essential, everything else left to rot.
>The presenter who called service ‘a creacking monster, says he’s ‘eternally grateful’ to medics who aided him
What’s the issue here? The NHS has well known structural problems but we all appreciate the care given by medics when we get it.
The idea that we, as a nation, cant afford the NHS only comes from brain dead people. You need to put just a tiny bit of thought to realise.
Cutting the NHS doesn’t mean that individually we will save money. People at still need to have the healthcare somehow. It means the government will cover less of our healthcare and we will individually pay vastly more than we currently do for the rest.
What these cretins are actually asking for is all of us to pay more on healthcare annually. What is the benefit of us all paying more? So that companies can make more money.
Why should this change anything – shouldn’t he be paying for it?
To the shock of nobody. Remember Reform are campaigning on ending the NHS.
Both of what he said is true, the NHS does good at emergency situations, but also the NHS in some areas is also a creaking monster that can sometimes work terribly.
I’ve dealt with a mix of both nhs and private this last year or so and agree with him on both counts.
Did people actually read the piece ? It referenced a previous piece where he said the country can no longer afford the NHS as it is, and he stood by that central view. And he has a point imo
People need to understand that criticism of the NHS, isn’t criticism of the people in it. Also it shouldn’t be immune from criticism. If you asked NHS staff if the system needs reform, I’d bet 90%+ of front line staff would agree.
Not for the first time iirc?
The NHS main issues are waiting times and hospital buildings that are at the end of their life.
It’s issue is not health outcomes or treatment quality.
When we look at the actual evidence the NHS has had some pretty sub par patient outcomes for decades.
Yes it can provide some excellent care with some excellent staff. This doesn’t, in any way excuse the former.
I’ve had excellent care and I’ve also been left with life altering injury due to poor care. My anecdotal experience doesn’t change the data.
Presumably the writer of this article, or at least the headline, didn’t read Clarkson’s piece. He very much does not renege on his opinion, he restates it at the end.
Poor conflicted man. Life saved by the NHS, but goes against what Rupert wants him to write
I had a family friend in the US that was super conservative small business owner. We used to go back and forth over universal healthcare. It wasn’t until he was over retirement age that he admitted I was probably right. While he was middle aged, he could afford a healthcare policy for his family. However, once he was over 63, they simply would not insure them. He was an asshole, but I do give him props for admitting it; same in this case.
I sometimes wonder if Clarkson is actually so good at this stuff. He criticises something, people start to focus on it because they hate him and the understanding of the underlying problems are more apparent.
He being a farmer. Now we respect and appreciate farming more.
Maybe it’ll be Clarkson’s GP Service next?
The hit pieces conveniently come out after he had a go at Ed Milliband I see
What the fuck is ‘a hot neck’ ???!!!
The most Alan Partridge thing I’ve read in years
So his private health plan didn’t spring into action in his moment of need?
There’s a lot wrong with the NHS. There’s a lot of good too. Some people in the NHS are brilliant. Some are absolute twats.
It’s quite complex really
Seems to be a common theme with Clarkson.
Climate Change is only a problem once it affects his farm. The NHS is only good when he needs it for something. Hell, most of his shows are him trying something he previously made fun of and finding out that it’s actually hard-work.
Hopefully it doesn’t take him getting run over to figure out why speed cameras are useful.
News that clarkson is an a prick is not a surprise to me. He is and always has been a click and rage baiter
I love the “we cannot afford it” coming from the super wealthy using private healthcare. How about insted of trying to privatise everything you and your mates chip in to fund it properly?
He’ll go back to hating it as soon as he is discharged. Thats how these people work. Trump supporters voted for him then said Mea Culpa, then voted for him again, twice, and now it’s Mea Culpa again…
Turns out “I’m alright Jack” doesn’t work when private healthcare is actually not up to scratch.
This is the fundamental problem.
Everything’s a waste of money until it affects you personally or your nearest and dearest, and then it becomes hugely important.
If people get out of this mode of thinking it’d be better for all us. It’s part of the problem of why we are where we are.
The best adverts for the NHS are those who needed it the most. A TV ad with loons like Clarkson’s words before/after are how you leverage these toxic idiots.
Ah, right wing twats following that familiar path. Empathy is their biggest enemy.
So he’s going to be vocally supporting the NHS and the policies needed to fund it going forward… right?
He might be a knob head at least he is willing and capable of changing his mind on topics.
In this current climate, we really need to give credit where it’s due when someone admits they’re wrong about something.
This is what Clarkson does. He generates a bunch of headlines by making controversial comments. Get’s a second round by standing by those comments. Then he gets a third round by saying he has now seen the light. Finally, he goes back to the start of the loop again.
His favourite is doing this loop with climate change.
This is good. The NHS is truly amazing.
If you have never needed them you might be cynical, but if you have needed them, they are the absolute best.
If we lost it to some nasty twat like Farage please understand that we would never get it back.
If I lived in America I would be in crippling debt. Thank God I don’t live in America. I live in Britain where a superb health service saved my life and fixed me up and charged me nothing.
Please don’t offer your opinion of the NHS if you have not yet needed them, wait until you do need them and then offer your opinion.
Clear evidence (if any more were needed) that the bloke is a complete and utter arsehole.
Why is it that there are only two, polar opposite, views on the NHS that are ever reported? That it’s perfect and immune from criticism, or that it’s dogshite and should be sold off to the highest bidder (which if it’s shite then who would buy it?). When in reality it’s tough to get into it, but once you are the staff are mostly brilliant.
Making the NHS immune from constructive criticism isn’t healthy (and frankly it’s treated as the national religion these days), and we rightly should point out it’s failings when they happen.
Clarkson surely isn’t using the NHS for treatment? Like hasn’t someone of his wealth got private healthcare so he does t experience the same suffering that most the country as he skips any waiting list.
As anyone with experience of more than seeing a specialist at a designated time will know, the private system in the UK is built on the back of the NHS. The parasites only move into any lucrative profitable area anf then disappear.
Giving birth in a private hospital? Any emergencies in childbirth and you’ll be moved to the NHS. A&E? NHS. Any chronic condition? NHS.
Thing about Clarkson and every other right wing commentator (I’m really censoring myself because the word I want to use is four letters long and vecinos with a c) is that they are so up their own arse that they can only extrapolate from their own individual experience, and other fools read their shit (in the rags of the billionaires actively benefiting from the privatisation) and actively believe it u til its too late.
Basically: he should repent forever and in perpetuity. But he won’t. Because he’s a…
Well, not that much of a renage given he ends his column with “we still can’t afford it”.
Also I keep forgetting that’s he’s legitimately a good writer whatever else he is. Can turn a phrase better than most columnists.
Except he didn’t? I read the original Times column. He talked about what good care he had received during a recent trip to an Oxfordshire A&E, and then ended it explicitly saying that his previous comments around the NHS funding crisis still stand.
The whole “Boomer/Conservative only see’s the value in something when they, in an emergency, personally, desperately require the thing…” aside;
Why the fuck do we, as a species, listen to the vacuous, feckless, moronic celebs about all and sundry like they have any greater clue than the rest of us? Does he have a history of funding/planning/managing the NHS or any part of it other than his own specific need of it?
This whole “Oooo, I wonder what Celeb X’s view of Thing Y is!” like they’ll have any greater experience than “Dave the man in the pub who things the moon is only 20 miles away” does?
Jeremy is such a caricature of these clueless boomers.
Makes you wonder why he wrote the article in the first place when he clearly just uses private healthcare (as is his right) and up to recently had next to no actual first hand experience with the service.
I’m not sure why he or the newspaper thought a non expert with no personal experience in the subject was in any position to make an assessment worth publishing.