Johnny Vegas' heartfelt speech on the NHS - The Last Leg

[@h0lly_blue]

Johnny is a national treasure

[@pearljam619]

If any nurses/doctors are reading this, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have given me nothing but care as we have fought life threatening illness together. So thank you.

[@pearljam619]

I agree. I meant no offence. All staff within the NHS. From porters, physio, ambulance drivers etc they have all helped me at one point in time. Thank you to one and all. x

[@combatwombat2134]

Johnny was in Cumbria a while back filming a new TV show he was doing. He filmed in the supermarket I work in for a scene, we were asked on the Sunday if some wanted to stay back and be extras and generally watch the goings on. They started outside with a cattle trailer and then moved inside where he screamed down two other actors about a pregnancy test, if I recall correctly. Anyway, he'd been in Cumbria previously and had gone to my mother and step father's pottery / crafts shop, being a fan of throwing pots himself I guess. I got talking to him when he was on break from this acting and was telling him he'd met my folks and how much they thought of him. For a start, he remembered them both. Which I thought was touching in and of itself. Second, he was openly eager to talk, interested in what we did and said. Finally, the director I suppose cane out and was saying their resuming in five minutes and Vegas turns around and goes, "Gimme ten, I'm talking."

[@geekdivaherself]

Thank you for your story! I worked as a tech writer for years and Adobe an Intel in America and now I am on public disability and Medicare. I'm envious of your NHS. I would probably be much healthier if we had such a system because I wouldn't have faced dress once I lost my job about losing health insurance once my COBRA insurance ran out.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

Hear, hear. Just look at America if you think private healthcare is the way forward. People die because they worry about how much treatment will cost themselves or their families. That is despicable in a "developed" country. The NHS is something which we *must* support _and_ be prepared to pay for.

[@rjfaber1991]

I think it's more complex than that. The Netherlands has privatised healthcare, and in terms of coverage and quality, it consistently ranks above Britain. That said, I think Britain would make a big mistake by abandoning the NHS for a private system. Not because it couldn't work; as the Netherlands shows it can work very well, with enough government regulation and oversight, but because the cost of transitioning would be too large, and simply swapping one system out for another won't instantly change things when systemic issues with the government approach to healthcare in Britain remain. I believe that ultimately, both single-payer and heavily regulated private healthcare can work very well, as long as attention is being paid to 1) scale (having a single system that covers an entire country), 2) accessibility, 3) quality and 4) working conditions for doctors, nurses and other staff. I think the problems the NHS currently faces have more to do with a lack of regard for those four points, rather than with the inherent advantages and disadvantages of a single-payer system.

[@rjfaber1991]

And yes, healthcare in the US is atrocious; you'll hear no argument from me on that one.

[@Sabbathtage]

This 'Murican agrees with you whole-heartedly. When we finally got SOME coverage it's changed lives. It's a matter of life and death to fight off privatization of health care. The employees may be good people trying to get by and do their jobs but if moneyed-interests are the driver then the whole organization becomes an engine of greed feeding off of human lives.

[@megannwalsh]

It’s awful here in the States. Just to get 9 pills for my migraines fluctuates between$1.55 or $250 if the insurance decides not to cover it. Don’t even get me started on procedures that are needed.

[@kevinmorley9372]

Robert Faber it's trouble has been mainly successive Tory governments that have cut all spare capacity and salted funds to the private sector. Tbh we couldn't trust this government anyway, not when they have ministers that try to offload their duties. Btw the NHS is no a load of individual trusts, the first step to breaking it up completely ready to privatise

[@ste2577]

I had a very bad car accident a few years back, if it wasn't for the paramedics and the amazing crew of doctors and nurses who put me back together I wouldn't be writing this comment! The NHS is part of us all

[@sandsideapache]

Always been a fan - but even more so now . Wonderfully put .

[@Emtech00]

The more i see of Johnny Vagas the more i like him. Has all the right ideas about life, my kind of people.

[@andrineslife]

The NHS is our future.

[@rolandhawken6628]

andrineslife Yes a sick future

[@jjdecani]

No, sadly. It's our past. Thanks to the Tories, and the stupid fucking working-class northern cunts who voted for them.

[@peterclarke7240]

Southern cunts, too. Although they've always voted tory, so ignore me.

[@BenNCM]

That's a really important point he makes at the end. The NHS really is embedded in the identity of this country and the people who it has helped. It's always been there as a safety when we need it. We'd become different people very quickly if it was dismantled. We're fighting for a part of who we are right now by fighting for the NHS. And I'm betting that most people haven't even considered what impact the system that forces the NHS out will have on them personally.

[@cde.zhaletscou9421]

Being from the US, private healthcare and the mentality used to justify it is a disease on society. It’s all about ‘takers’. Welfare isn’t about weeding out the takers, even if there are the 0.000000000000000001% who might. It’s about everyone lookin’ out for each other, b/c that’s the only way we’ve gotten forward and the only way we’re going to get forward

[@dankit2548]

When is Johnny Vegas going to run for prime minister. Seriously he'd be better than any of the current options.

[@bobbyfirmino6562]

Really wouldn't

[@michaelvincent7115]

@@bobbyfirmino6562 you seen the incompetence that is May?

[@peterclarke7240]

I'm from the future. You have bojo Jo and his cabinet of curiosities now! Plus 100,000 dead people.

[@YodaMan-420]

Vegas is just as genuine as he is funny. love him.

[@Kaneisback2]

Just had my appendix taken out last night, another time its saved my life for no cost. Thanks NHS.

[@formulafrank3527]

@What's on my mind I don't get your arguement because we pay taxes for the NHS...

[@jasonpatterson8091]

@@formulafrank3527 You're right, it's not no cost, and it's silly of people to treat it like it is free. HOWEVER, imagine being where I am, in the US, paying $12k per year for private health insurance, and if my appendix had to come out, I'd wind up with at least another $5k in bills to cover deductibles and copays and all the rest. And I have "good" health insurance. If one of my kids wound up with brain cancer or a heart defect, it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if the insurance company and medical providers argue about payment, you know where those bills go? Straight to me.

[@carlday3538]

We appreciate all the Drs and Nurses I have been in and out of hospital all my life . born with heart problems in 1979 had two open heart operations at 7 months old then again at 17 months old.. been looked after by the cardiologists at Birmingham and Stoke which still take care of me .. then had meningitis at 13 which damaged my spleen liver and gall bladder which I had out due to gall stones at 13 years old .. so yes without the NHS I do not know where I would be .. so thank you ..much love

[@fd5927]

COVID. 2020/2021 Johnny's comment about the N.H.S has even more relevance today than he, We, could ever have thought....

[@MultiBigbird01]

It's not everyday johnny gets serious about something. But that's what the NHS does to us Brits. We're all passionate about it.

[@dinkydooq]

Brilliant ! Well said Jonny ! 👍🏼

[@ouroldhouse3674]

Damn right. Well said Johnny.

[@iucidium1982]

4 years later, here we are - WAKE UP

[@DokkaChapman]

GO JOHNNY GO!

[@EdgyShooter]

What annoys me most is when people go on about how great private healthcare is. Private healthcare does exist in England (BUPA etc) and if you want that then you can pay for it. But being able to know that if I get in a horrific accident, or develop cancer, that I will be treated and looked after and let out the hospital (hopefully) as healthy as possible and all I'll have to worry about is sorting my self out, not having to panic over how I'm going to pay for the ambulance charge, or that an insurance company will find a loophole so they don't have to pay the bill like it is in the USA.

[@SJPDurham]

We love you Johnny.

[@wizardofoz1390]

Johnny Vegas is a Super star

[@dogriffiths]

Johnny Vegas: heart of the nation.

[@northernninjarunner5506]

Johnny Vegas for PM

[@williamwilson6499]

I lived in England 85-90…the big news story at the time in 85 was a little boy who had a ventral septal defect (hole in the heart). The surgery was scheduled but the doctors were saying he wasn’t going to make it and needed surgery sooner. The NHS refused to change the date. Doctors and nurses said they would volunteer their time but the NHS would not back down. The kid died. Let’s hear it for socialized medicine.

[@ndaba17]

Love Johnny

[@beelarehman5992]

Well said!

[@Steeleperfect]

Absolutely right.

[@Kill3rR0s3]

If I’ll fight for a free internet then I will damn well fight for free healthcare, I might be lucky enough to not need it but there are definitely people who aren’t and we must protect them

[@rjfaber1991]

Oh, you never know... I hadn't seen a doctor in years until last year, when I had a bicycle accident, suffered a head injury and spent two days on the neurology ward. You never know when you'll need healthcare.

[@chiuansheng]

Pfff. And what next you fighting for? Free foods? Free house, free transport, Why not free everythings. And if everything are free. I think we don’t need currency and doesn’t pay you for work. Sound familiar to me. As a Chinese. Wait. We tried it and caused millions died! You fucking idiot!

[@Kill3rR0s3]

chiuansheng firstly, that’s rude. Secondly; yes and no to answer your questions. I believe everyone deserves the right to live, to have shelter to be able to eat , to be able to be ill and not worry about money be the cause of their death. Where money comes in is for actual luxuries like travel, parties, gaming, etc and being able to live your life to the fullest with people you love, there’s so much more to every-fucking-thing than the basic necessities. You shouldn’t have to be worried about surviving to the end of the week because you knows there’s no -one to help you.

[@cardellkenith]

chiuansheng you are pushing to a big extreme there dude. you can work when hungry, you can even work when homeless or in temporary accommodation (it's much much harder, but still possible). It is very hard and irresponsible to work when you are sick as you could spread and cause an epidemic, or very hard to work with broken limbs being unattended to. To charge people for their ability to work and basically charging them for wanting to continue to live, is fucked up. and just because we want free healthcare to remain, that doesn't mean we want communism. If x then y is not applicable. If i were to say "you want privatised companies? what next, you want to be charged for every breathe of air?" you would probably see that the jump is too extreme and illogical.

[@hughmungus1235]

Go out and do something then, or are you just another left wing idiot smashing up shops for no reason?

[@matthewmullins1313]

How anyone can possibly downvote this is beyond me.

[@rorybone100]

Vegas for PM

[@DamoMcDermott]

How right was he what he said

[@excidedous]

Oh look - 18 members of Parliament hit "Dislike"

[@DuncanMcintyre-jk3qb]

David tennants plea at end is just as powerful save ourselves save the nhs

[@TheSSMusicChannel]

working for the NHS, I can see the privatisationCancer growing, its 70 they are trying to retire it.

[@wizardofoz1390]

Fight for your rights🤟

[@DrCory48]

good video

[@custossecretus5737]

Unfortunately, we live in a society where money talks and morals walk. Stealth privatisation is easy, you just cut the staff budget and increase the budget for outsourcing. Doesn`t matter if the outsourcing costs 34 times more than one member of staff that used to do the job. It is the bad side of Capitalism versus the society we all want for ourselves and our children. Unfortunately, the money is on the side of privatisation unless we stand up and change the values we are indoctrinated into following at an early age.

[@paulwalker2401]

Absolutely agree...

[@jasonpatterson8091]

To anyone who doesn't think the NHS is worth keeping: Get on Go Fund Me and look at all of the poor bastards here in the US who are begging the internet for help so that they can take care of themselves or loved ones without losing their homes and then think really fucking hard about whether NHS taxes are worth it.

[@lostgleammedia]

Every Tory should see this

[@ceecee130847]

4 years on and it's 2023 and the NHS is even more defunded and destroyed by the Conservative government. It's only the staff that keeps it going for us and they are exhausted. Thank you to everyone who works in the NHS.

[@ipodguy9]

[@borytastards2035]

Vegastic

[@michaelcollins8994]

moron

[@propertiesspain1869]

Was a disaster for both my parents.

[@Dannysince1985]

Anyone who strongly supports the NHS doesn't know half the problems with the NHS and most of it is down to the NHS itself, from directors, to managers even nurses and drs half of them are bent and it's run on greed you really need to work within the NHS to see only the small problems.

[@collin8915]

Anyone's who thinks they're the empassioned against it doesn't fully comprehend and has never had to deal with privatized medicine.

[@windmillonthehillfilms9453]

If we don't fight for this. then what will we fight for. The government kill us and we're told not to fight. All I hear is talk, talk and more talk. It stops now or you could be next?.

[@tomimpala]

Tories keep winning because Labour need a stronger showing. They've got good policies, just no energy, chasisma or strong messaging...

[@tenfootmice]

I Do Monologues dont worry as soon as we get the next labour leader willing to kiss the right wing media's ass like good old Tony then they will be back power again

[@Sammie1053]

American here... God, if only I could relate.

[@The.Conqueeftador]

I'll agree labour has been bloody limp wristed for ages now, but I wouldn't trust any party with NHS. Let's not forget that labour was the first party to suggest NHS privatisation

[@drofheim]

The NHS, where you are sick, go to hospital, get MRSA.

[@george5590]

i see a private doctor i am not in a health insurance , he is a cardioigest , treats me like iam a private paitent ?this is in australia , if you have a life thretning illness you will be looked after ?but if you are not in a health fund you can wait up the 6 years for knee or hip surgery ?and other things ,my mate payed about 35ooo dollars to have his hip don , , he came out of hospial after two days has not to pay the 600 dollars a day fee ?public section is ok , but can not keep up with sellected surgery , and private not interested they have plenty of private clients on there books

[@monkeydust100]

Adam Hills is not funny

[@DavidJones-rp2og]

If the Conservatives wanted to privatise the nhs don’t you think they’d have done it by now, given that they’re usually in power ? If the nhs is so wonderful how come every other country in the world won’t touch it with a barge pole ?

[@alexhoran5558]

What do you mean? People from other countries come to the U.K. simply for our healthcare.

[@rusparks3329]

Australia has Medicare which I’m pretty sure is the same as the NHS, Canada has a similar public funded healthcare system which countries are you referring to?

[@MrBlizno]

" David Jones David Jones 3 days ago If the Conservatives wanted to privatise the nhs don’t you think they’d have done it by now, given that they’re usually in power ? If the nhs is so wonderful how come every other country in the world won’t touch it with a barge pole ?" I'm in USA. We pay by far the most, per capita, for our health care and our health care is well below that received by other nations for far less money. We pay huge money for private health insurance, which is barely mediocre. That's so that some people can harvest vast wealth at the expense of everybody else. Please, please give us the same as your NHS!

[@alexhoran5558]

Kim McIntosh Ireland and Eastern European countries

[@tenfootmice]

Um, it's happening slowly. These things take time to slip past the people. Yeah we as population are gullible, but not that gullible

[@krileayn]

All emotion and no reason. This is why comedy in politics is so dangerous it kills rational debate.