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Democracy has stopped Britain going to war - but can it save England's NHS?
We have just seen the importance of democracy in relation to matters of life and death overseas.
We must restore it at home, too.
So parliament has prevailed, the popular will has been heard, and the UK will not go to war in Syria.
MPs looked to their constituencies, looked to the polling data, looked to the legacy of mistrust and
antipathy bequeathed by the Iraq war, and voted accordingly.
Democracy in action, the executive held to account. Whatever your thoughts on military intervention
, it is surely right that matters as important as going to war are subject to democratic decision
making in parliament, where the popular will can be heard.
Why, then, for matters as important as the NHS, have we surrendered democratic accountability
and parliamentary sovereignty with barely a whimper? Where is parliament's strength, where is
regard to the popular mandate, as our NHS is dismantled?
From the NHS's foundation in 1948 until 2012, the Secretary of State for Health had a legal duty
to secure a comprehensive health service for us all. If there were failings, he or she was
answerable to parliament - and ultimately to the electorate.
This is no longer the case. The 2012 Health & Social Care Act abolished this legal duty for the
first time. The Secretary of State is now at liberty to raid the NHS coffers - another £2billion was
clawed back last year alone - without being held accountable for the results