NHS
It's not just Ashya King's parents who the authorities despise
My first act upon returning from my holiday was to sign the online petition to have the supremely irritating children’s…
Six rivals for the name Isis
Not in their name The BBC decided to start calling the Islamic terror group Isis by the acronym IS instead.…
Visiting Burgundy from my hospital bed
There have been some splendid rumours about my health. According to the most exotic, I was cas-evacked from a hill…
Spectator letters: A defence of nursing assistants, a mystery shotgun, and a response to Melanie Phillips
Poor treatment Sir: Jane Kelly’s article (‘No tea or sympathy’, 2 August) on the lack of empathy and emotional support…
In our hard-pressed NHS, must sympathy be rationed too?
Nurses might be overworked but they could still be kind
What Germans are worst at
What Germans do worst Some things Germans aren’t very good at: — Making reliable car engines. According to a survey by Warranty Direct…
The NHS ‘wellbeing’ monkey deserves to die
My young daughter has a furry beaver — lifelike in all but its eyes, which to me seem cold and dead.…
The ambulance service is in a state of emergency
Tom leant back against the bathroom wall, his face streaked with blood from the nosebleed, eyes half shut like an…
Farewell, Speccie
So we are all going to have to pay for fatties to have stomach bands and bypasses, are we? It…
How Wales was betrayed by its (Labour) government.
Devolution has left my country with catastrophic misgovernment
The big fat lie about cholesterol
Though I’m not generally big on banning stuff, there’s one substance I would prohibit without a moment’s hesitation — probably on…
How the NHS fails new mothers on breast-feeding
Why isn’t there a proper service to show new nursing mothers how to feed their babies?
Spectator letters: Ken Loach defended, and the music of Pepys
We need religion Sir: Roger Scruton (‘Sacred hunger’, 31 May) describes a reason, dare I say a ‘purpose’, for religion in…
Nigel Farage is becoming a moderniser
There are many words that you might associate with Nigel Farage, but moderniser probably isn’t one. Yet the Ukip leader…
Why Weight Watchers doesn’t deserve taxpayers’ money
Why slimming clubs don’t deserve public money
The sinister new meaning of ‘support’
When I asked my husband why paramedical professions were given to remaking the language in strange ways, he replied in…
This strategy won Eurovision. It could also save your life
Oskar Morgenstern grew up in Vienna, John von Neumann in Budapest. Clearly the same Austro-Hungarian intellectual spirit which gave rise…
E-cigarettes are making tobacco obsolete. So why ban them?
The e-cigarette means that tobacco is going the way of the top hat. So what is the medical establishment’s problem with it?
As a doctor, I’d rather have HIV than diabetes
In the West, the deadliest thing about HIV may now be the stigma
Our leaders have betrayed the noble worker. Oh really?
Alan Johnson cannot accept that the best days of the British working class are over
Dear Mary: My teenager insists on an NHS operation. What can I do?
Q. Our son, aged l6, has a medical condition which, although not life-threatening, requires surgery by a specialist to pre-empt…
What the NHS owes the Tories
Pinned to the wall of Jeremy Hunt’s office in the Department of Health is an A1 piece of paper detailing…
Martin Vander Weyer: In my hospital bed, I saw the future of the NHS
I blamed the pheasant casserole, but I did it an injustice. Its only contribution to the drama behind my disappearance…
Portrait of the week
Home The government announced proposals for the National Health Service, including a law to criminalise wilful neglect by doctors and…
Portrait of the week
Home EDF Energy said it would put up prices by 3.9 per cent. BT Sport spent £897 million on the rights…
