Wednesday 22 April 2009

Sam: more tax please, Mr Brown


Today Gordon Brown announced an increased tax rate of 50% for Britain’s top earners. At least from my house, you can hear the sound of one hand clapping, which is all I can do after my stroke.

I’m pleased to report that, from my experience, the NHS is alive and working well. I’m certainly happy with every single penny in tax that I’ve paid towards it. In the past, when I thought of the NHS, the first things that jumped to mind were MRSA, waiting lists and overpaid doctors, but now I think of value for money and hope that Mr Brown will tax me more and give the money to the NHS.

My NHS story so far: I had a massive stroke and after we called an ambulance, it was there in 10 minutes. They took me straight to a specialist stroke hospital and into emergency brain surgery. I went through enough MRI scanners to make NASA jealous. They also gave me a new wonder drug which minimised the damage.

In my experience, there were plenty of doctors around, the nurses were really nice and even the food was actually bearable. Now, after a month of intensive rehabilitation, I can walk again and I have a team of experts who come to my home and are helping me get back to work.

Without tax and the NHS, I would have no todger to talk about now. So I say hurrah for the NHS and hurrah for higher taxes.

13 comments:

my sun sets to rise again said...

Hey Sam, It's great that you're well (or getting there at least) and writing. Keep it up :)


And as one who works (in a non-care capacity) for the NHS, we really do try hard.

Unknown said...

Hurrah indeed! I can't imagine how much that would cost in the states. It's probably just because I've been raised with the NHS, but paying to not die seems awfully strange.

Jim said...

Glad to hear you're on the road to recovery. I heard a programme on Radio 4 about the stroke wonder-drug and fanastic advances in post-stroke care this afternon (probably onlisten again). Great work from the medics!

Marianna said...

SAM! WELCOME BACK! We've missed you! It's beyond fabulous to have you back posting already. Congratulations on the recovery so far, and may it continue quickly and completely.
My recent experience of the NHS (via my grandfather) is that the doctors, nurses, cleaners, out-workers, GPs, care-teams, care-coordinators and everyone else are all overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. It's lovely to see some praise for people who so richly deserve it.

WELCOME BACK! xxx

Anonymous said...

The NHS is literally amazing. I'm glad that they took such good care of you :)
And if the tax money goes on good stuff, then I'm all for it. But it rather scuppers my plans for becoming a millionaire - now I'll have to work twice as hard!
xxxx

Angelalala said...

I normally have a rule not to do politics and sex in the same room but I'll make an exception to welcome you home and thank the NHS for making it so, so quickly.

WV: alits. Not Beverley, obviously.

Anonymous said...

It's a joy to see you back Sam, you've been much missed!

Jules said...

Welcome back Sam, and well said!

Canuckian's Evil Twin said...

welcome back sam!

Katie said...

Welcome back Sam and glad you are on the mend.

Pedro said...

Welcome back :)

Mia said...

Welcome back. Hope you continue to get better. Us Aussies are lil fighters.
x

LB said...

Sam - glad to see you are OK.

The NHS suffers from a huge paradox in so much as general opinion of it is average at best, but ask for people's individual experiences and the "approval rating" goes up in the the nineties somewhere...