Belinda Johnston, whose grandfather led government that created NHS, says health service is ‘just as Grandpa envisaged’
“I can remember Grandpa clearly from the age of three or four,” says Belinda Johnston, smiling, in her office in Charing Cross hospital in west London. “He’d sit in a Parker Knoll winged armchair, smoke his pipe and play card games with me and my sisters. He would read the Times religiously every day but get it so muddled up that Mum would have to iron it before Dad got back from work.”
She is talking about Clement Attlee, the prime minister in the 1945-51 Labour government which, amid the ruins of war and the grip of austerity, created what became known as the welfare state. Arguably the most progressive administration of the 20th century, its greatest achievement – the NHS – turns 70 on Thursday.
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