A Busman's Holiday

I did mean to say I was taking a break, but I was a bit too tired to type it properly and, you know, think much.

All the time I was working on the Responsible Reform report, my kids, my husband and I were counting down the days til "Mummy Holiday". I promised faithfully that I would take February off, lock my laptop slavedriver in a cupboard or something and go all Nigella on our neglected home life.

I know this sounds utterly naive, but I honestly thought that I'd be able to turn off the tech on the 10th January, snuggle up under a duvet for a week or so and then fix my broken life. We'd been ignored for so long - in the media, by politicians, by the public - I never once considered that anyone might actually start to pay attention. I never in a million years thought I'd be fielding calls from Newsnight and the BBC. If you'd told me a UK welfare report would trend globally on twitter, I'd have laughed.

Well, that's what happens when complete novices learn as they go along.

So, I'm on holiday! As Kaliya said, it feels like the first week of school holidays! AND I get the added bonus of watching Workfare crumble spectacularly, A4E fall apart at the seams and Chris Grayling stuttering like an indignant toddler caught with his hand in the sweetie jar.

Just for the record, I give ESA about another 4 months before that too collapses, groaning, under the unprecedented incompetence of it's own design. Can't wait, can you?

But last night, tweeting a bit with friends, and reading a few "Save our NHS" articles, I got to thinking about what had made the Spartacus campaign so powerful? What on earth made welfare sexy? And I remembered that it was the personal stories. The One Month Before Heartbreak Twitter campaign and Left out in the Cold. The #fitforwork tag and the #DLAstories.

We, as people, or "the public" are constantly de-humanised by our political system. Claimants in need are referred to as "Stock", numbers claiming as "flow rates", patients as "clients". We forget all too often WHY we are fighting and who we are fighting for.

So I asked people : Has the NHS ever saved your life? Really think about it? Even if you were immunised, there's a good chance that it did. Nasty broken bones used to kill people, and flu and tonsilitis and even a dog bite. Most of us were born in a hospital if nothing else. Even that nasty chest infection you got last year could have seen you off if it had been left to develop into pneumonia for want of the money to pay for antibiotics.

How many children did your Great-Nan have? How many survived? We can go back you know. We can always undo the great good work we've done over the years to make the UK the most equitable health nation on earth - yes read it again, the UK is the world leader in treating conditions on need, not on the ability to pay. We are the best at something.

Oh, of all people, I know the faults of the NHS. But I'm still here to write about it.

Within minutes, @concrete_sky had suggested a hashtag - #nhssavedmylife - and this morning it was trending No1 in the UK. The stories are heart warming, harrowing and sometimes challenging, but they remind us that come what may, we have something precious that is worth fighting for.

Join the fight, tell your story. If you can say the #nhssavedmylife add your voice.

Let's remind Andrew Lansley why reform must always be responsible. And let's remind him exactly who the NHS is there to serve - the patients.