Sitting in a home somewhere while fireworks lit up the Olympics Opening Ceremony would have been the family of Kane Gorny.
They watched their cherished teenage son die of thirst at the hands of incompetent doctors and nurses.
Kane was a promising footballer with a bright future ahead of him until he was admitted to hospital. He died of thirst a couple of days later.
His life was lost for want of a simple glass of water. One glass of water that a succession of clueless medics denied him.
Kane even went to the extreme length of calling 999 from his hospital bed so desperate was he for a drink during his visit to hospital for a hip replacement in 2009. Yet when the police arrived, the nurses ushered them away, assuring them that the young patient was confused.
Within a day he was dead. Dead because NHS hospital staff refused to give a sick man a glass of water. We are not talking some powerful prescription drug. Just a small glass of tap water.
Yet none of them were able to do this. They were ‘incompetent’ and made a ‘series of basic failures’, said the coroner after an inquest earlier this month into Kane’s death.
It has been suggested that some of these people should have gone to prison for what happened. Yet, shockingly, just one nurse has been demoted as a result of Mr Gorny’s death and the rest are still working in healthcare.
How does the family of Kane – and indeed the thousands of others we have heard of and the many more we haven’t – feel when they see the NHS being shamefully glorified at the biggest sporting bonanza in the world?
Sick to the stomach, I imagine.
Yet this is exactly what happened in front of an international audience of billions who were watching the show in London yesterday evening.
The letters ‘NHS’ dazzled in bright red, like some triumphant advert. All around pranced self-indulgent nurses who had volunteered to take a few days off to be part of the ceremony.
Children lay in their beds as Mary Poppins figures danced and JK Rowling read some bedtime tales.
And how long did this shameful propaganda last for? A whole 15 minutes at the top of proceedings before viewers dozed off to the procession of banana republics and far-flung destinations nobody has ever heard of or even cares for.
That such a politically divisive subject was included at all is utterly shocking. Not least because it glossed over the cracks in a system that is creaking at its seams - crying out for urgent reform.
And nobody seems to have considered the sheer hypocrisy that the majority of the athletes taking part in the Games will have access to the most expensive cutting-edge private treatment available in the world for even the slightest graze on their bodies.
'What's disturbing to many people is top-down political manipulation - whether consciously or unthinkingly - at a major sporting event'
The NHS segment came after a mildly moving rendition of Jerusalem (though this will move any patriot) and a play depicting the industrial revolution tearing up Blake’s ‘green and pleasant land’.
The highlight was undoubtedly an hilarious sketch featuring the Queen and James Bond which saw her Majesty ‘parachute’ into the stadium.
But it was the absurdly unrealistic scene – and indeed one that would spring from the kind of nonsensical targets and equality quotas we see in the NHS - showing a mixed-race middle-class family in a detached new-build suburban home, which was most symptomatic of the politically correct agenda in modern Britain.
This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but such set-ups are simply not the 'norm' in any part of the country. So why was it portrayed like this and given such prominence? If it was intended to be something that we can celebrate, that two people with different colour skin and different cultural heritages can live harmoniously together, then it deserves praise.
But what will be disturbing to many people is top-down political manipulation - whether consciously or unthinkingly - at a major sporting event.
Conservative MP Aidan Burley was entitled to his right to comment on Twitter that the it was a load of 'leftie multicultural crap'. Yet predictably he has been castigated by the social network's Guardianista brigade.
Unfortunately the kind of politically driven multiculturalism we saw last night is the kind of social engineering we have come to expect.
What we should not accept is the promotion of an institution that allowed a man to die of thirst from his hospital bed.
Yes, there are parts of the NHS that we can be proud of and it undoubtedly does lots of excellent work. There are examples of true heroism at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
But that should not be forced on us at a sporting event that's supposed to be above politics, which is of course why the likes of Syria, North Korea and China are allowed to compete.
If only those behind the biased spectacle last night had spared a thought for the likes of Kane, and the many others who have been failed by the NHS, would we have had an opening ceremony we could be proud of.
Sadly - despite all the hype about how brilliant it was - we cannot.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2180124/Olympics-opening-ceremony-NHS-disgracefully-glorified.htmlThey watched their cherished teenage son die of thirst at the hands of incompetent doctors and nurses.
Kane was a promising footballer with a bright future ahead of him until he was admitted to hospital. He died of thirst a couple of days later.
His life was lost for want of a simple glass of water. One glass of water that a succession of clueless medics denied him.
Kane Gorny, pictured with his mother Rita, before he died after NHS doctors and nurses failed to give him a glass of water as he died of thirst in his hospital bed
Part of the ceremony involved a piece by the staff and patients of the NHS, in particular, from Great Ormand Street Hospital for Children
Within a day he was dead. Dead because NHS hospital staff refused to give a sick man a glass of water. We are not talking some powerful prescription drug. Just a small glass of tap water.
Yet none of them were able to do this. They were ‘incompetent’ and made a ‘series of basic failures’, said the coroner after an inquest earlier this month into Kane’s death.
How does the family of Kane – and indeed the thousands of others we have heard of and the many more we haven’t – feel when they see the NHS being shamefully glorified at the biggest sporting bonanza in the world?
Sick to the stomach, I imagine.
Yet this is exactly what happened in front of an international audience of billions who were watching the show in London yesterday evening.
Gratuitous: Volunteer nurses perform in a sequence at the Olympics opening ceremony glorifying Britain's National Health Service (NHS)
Children lay in their beds as Mary Poppins figures danced and JK Rowling read some bedtime tales.
And how long did this shameful propaganda last for? A whole 15 minutes at the top of proceedings before viewers dozed off to the procession of banana republics and far-flung destinations nobody has ever heard of or even cares for.
That such a politically divisive subject was included at all is utterly shocking. Not least because it glossed over the cracks in a system that is creaking at its seams - crying out for urgent reform.
And nobody seems to have considered the sheer hypocrisy that the majority of the athletes taking part in the Games will have access to the most expensive cutting-edge private treatment available in the world for even the slightest graze on their bodies.
'What's disturbing to many people is top-down political manipulation - whether consciously or unthinkingly - at a major sporting event'
The highlight was undoubtedly an hilarious sketch featuring the Queen and James Bond which saw her Majesty ‘parachute’ into the stadium.
But it was the absurdly unrealistic scene – and indeed one that would spring from the kind of nonsensical targets and equality quotas we see in the NHS - showing a mixed-race middle-class family in a detached new-build suburban home, which was most symptomatic of the politically correct agenda in modern Britain.
This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but such set-ups are simply not the 'norm' in any part of the country. So why was it portrayed like this and given such prominence? If it was intended to be something that we can celebrate, that two people with different colour skin and different cultural heritages can live harmoniously together, then it deserves praise.
But what will be disturbing to many people is top-down political manipulation - whether consciously or unthinkingly - at a major sporting event.
Conservative MP Aidan Burley was entitled to his right to comment on Twitter that the it was a load of 'leftie multicultural crap'. Yet predictably he has been castigated by the social network's Guardianista brigade.
Unfortunately the kind of politically driven multiculturalism we saw last night is the kind of social engineering we have come to expect.
What we should not accept is the promotion of an institution that allowed a man to die of thirst from his hospital bed.
Yes, there are parts of the NHS that we can be proud of and it undoubtedly does lots of excellent work. There are examples of true heroism at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
But that should not be forced on us at a sporting event that's supposed to be above politics, which is of course why the likes of Syria, North Korea and China are allowed to compete.
If only those behind the biased spectacle last night had spared a thought for the likes of Kane, and the many others who have been failed by the NHS, would we have had an opening ceremony we could be proud of.
Sadly - despite all the hype about how brilliant it was - we cannot.
