So it seems there is an up-side to the crazies in the US protesting against health care reform and socialised medicine (while at the same time, without any apparent irony, demanding the government not touch their Medicare), and condemning the British National Health Service as a socialised evil.

In one particularly memorable editorial, a ‘journalist’ stated that, under the British system, noted physicist Stephen Hawking would have been left for dead. The Stephen Hawking. The one who’s lived in England all his life. (Hawking’s response was that he “wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for the NHS”.)

British Twitter users have banded together in defence of the NHS, and this has led to the best opening sentence I have ever seen in an article (from Talking Points Memo). The full article is here, the quote is

Thanks to the advent of the Internet, news of UK’s death panels offing internationally renowned scientists has reached the people who rely on the Britain’s socialized medicine whenever they need health care. And they’re rushing to their system’s defense.