It is fair to assess the NHS on pre-pandemic statistics. The NHS employs approximately 1.2 million people in England alone. In 2019/20, the Department of Health and Social Care spent £148.9 billion, 10.2% of GDP. Ex direct-pandemic spending, this budget will rise to £173.8 billion in 2022/23. It is a wonderful service staffed with many great people. They rose to the challenge of the pandemic brilliantly. Its very existence defines the UK. We should be proud of it.

So, eulogies over, it is, like any other huge organisation, prone to errors and failure. Within the £148.9 billion there will be waste. Within the 1.2 million staff there will be lazy, self-interested, or incompetent staff. This is a fact of life not unfair criticism, and we should all be free to question the level of service we receive. After all, it is we who pay for it.

And we should be wary of activist medical staff and the organisations who represent them, who, in providing care when we are most vulnerable, avoid scrutiny as to their motives when campaigning. We should also be wary of the NHS being a political football too. This is in many ways inevitable, bearing in mind its importance to voters, but we should question the motives of politicians who laud the NHS without question, or pump money, or who wish to pump money, into it without the necessary accountability.

The catastrophic maternity care failures at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust are a reminder of not putting the NHS on an unquestioned pedestal. The findings are being well covered in the media but one of the stark findings was patients not being listened to, combined with a culture of bullying internally and mistakes not being investigated. Unforgiveable.

And there have been other scandals too; the Alder Hey organs scandal, the Bristol heart scandal and the Stafford Hospital scandal to name but a few. The latter was particularly worrying in that a Healthcare Commission enquiry found there was no cause for concern in the high levels of mortality at the hospital, only for a subsequent public enquiry to find there were multiple instances of neglect, incompetence and abuse of patients.

A failure to question the NHS also prohibits debate about its future. Should all healthcare be free at the point of delivery, are there ways some members of the public could be incentivised to use its services more efficiently? Why do some hospital trusts have a reputation for efficiency, even cutting waiting lists during the pandemic, whilst others do not? Not directly in the remit of the NHS but why do the services from General Practitioners vary so widely? Why is private healthcare being seen as a necessary option by growing numbers of the public? Many would argue that knowing what we know now, you would not start with an NHS as it is currently constructed. There are plenty of other efficient, effective, fair models of public healthcare in Western countries, as well as models that work less well.

You cannot repeat enough how great the NHS is in terms of its overall service delivery. But is it not perfect and we should not be intimidated into always lauding it. Ensuring it is not automatically placed on a pedestal is good for the NHS but, most importantly, vital for the patients who use it.

Patience was always thin with this charlatan of a Prime Minister. Loose with the truth, failing to understand the checks and balances of an unwritten constitution, reaching the highest of offices without knowing what to do when he got there, he has always been a high-risk office holder.

He has overstepped the mark again, one hopes for a final time, with his offensive comments at the Tories’ Spring Conference this weekend. He is quoted verbatim below:

‘I know that it’s the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom every time…When the British people voted for Brexit in such large numbers…it’s because they wanted to be free to do things differently and for this country to be able to run itself.‘

How crass this man is. Johnson seems unable to undertake his responsibilities, part of which are to heal the wounds of a divided nation and rebuild a new, constructive relationship with the EU, without careless ignorance. How could he equate the appalling war in Ukraine with Brexit? And ironies of ironies, how could he forget Ukraine is trying to join the EU, fighting for the freedom to choose to do so?

Watching the impressive Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, squirm on Sunday morning television when Johnson’s comments were put to him said it all. He was clear Ukraine and Brexit were not ‘analogous’ and the Prime Minister must have been misunderstood. He was not.

The fact that several senior Tories don’t have a problem with Johnson’s comments highlights one of Nigel Farage’s greatest achievements – turning the Conservative Party into the Brexit Party.

I am told wannabe prospective Tory parliamentary candidates cannot now progress if they display any historic Remain instincts publicly. You cannot get a job in Number 10, unless you are a Brexiteer. Good, able Tories such as Dominic Grieve, David Gauke and Rory Stewart are no longer members of a Party led by Johnson. He and his Tory followers seem to forget every recent Tory Prime Minister before Johnson voted Remain.

And turning back to Johnson’s broader political career, it is littered with irresponsibility. The recently released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe almost certainly owes part of her extended stay in an Iranian jail to Johnson’s earlier careless gaffes when Foreign Secretary. This current Prime Minister is the subject of a police investigation into breaking lockdown rules. He accepted contributions to a £200,000 renovation of his Downing Street flat, claiming he didn’t know of their source. He has brushed up closely to Russians with links to Putin and oligarchs generally in his desire to shovel money into the Tory Party’s coffers. He has repeatedly been caught misleading audiences on issues too numerous to mention.

The Tory Party has been one of the most successful political parties in history, to be fair also recently under Johnson. It has been so due to a core conservative, small ‘c’ philosophy which has been applied pragmatically to current events. Pragmatism has been lost on the issue of Europe and perhaps gone too far in accepting the lack of integrity of its current leader.

If Johnson’s overstepping of the mark with his Brexit/Ukraine comments was an attempt to distract from a looming cost of living crisis, it has failed. It only focuses attention on his personal failings. Public life, indeed the Conservative Party, would surely benefit if he was shown the door by either his parliamentary colleagues, voters, or both.

The news of casualties in Ukraine just gets worse. The madness of Putin gets madder. As this disaster unfolds it is almost impossible to find any grounds for optimism but there are ripple effects which will have longstanding consequences.

First, and of most immediate significance is the economic response of the West to this war. Expecting a wave of self-interested half measures, Putin has been entirely wrongfooted by the West rediscovering its sense of purpose. Serious coordinated sanctions which will decimate Russia’s economy have been implemented. The West has found its moral compass, even at the expense of potential problems such sanctions will cause at home. The test will be when the consequences for the public in Europe and North America mount, but one senses patience in the face of our very way of life being threatened by Putin’s actions.

Second, and running on from this, recalibrated defence and energy policies. Germany pledging to step up to the plate on defence spending, the UK, US and most significantly, the EU, pledging to wean themselves off Russian energy supplies, will remove Russia’s stranglehold over the West for a generation.

Third, the defenestration of the populist Right. How does Trump’s praise of Putin look now? Can you imagine if he was still President? How do apologists of Putin look in Europe? Begone Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemour in France, to name but a few. One almost certain outcome is a victory for Macron in April’s French presidential election. The war has also driven Poland back into the heart of Europe and even Orban in Hungary is making the right noises.

Fourth, China. The last blog suggested war in Ukraine could be a catalyst/opportunity for China to join the heart of the international community. It caused vigorous debate! It was only a suggestion, not an expectation. But, regardless, the West’s economic response must be unsettling for Xi and should make him think twice about his shameless tactical embrace of Russia and any moves on Taiwan.

Fifth, the benefits of a free press. This war has been fought in public and endless Western news outlets have distinguished themselves hugely with their reports, busting apart sometimes ludicrous propaganda from Russia and its allies. In the end, this will have a key impact on ending this war and acts as a reminder to the previously complacent West never to take such news services for granted. It also means the sources of information in social media are now firmly in the public eye with much more scrutiny likely to uncover false information.

Sixth, and closer to home, this war shines a light on corrupt money infecting London, the property market generally and the financing of political parties (really the Conservative Party). Even Conservative commentators are warming to the idea of greater state funding of our political system to create a more level, fairer playing field and remove the temptations of donations from potentially corrupt businessmen and/or unfair access to the honours list…That would be a very good thing.

What Ukrainians are going through is unimaginable and much more can still be done to ease their suffering. Of course, only Putin can end this war but his unintended legacy, for he will not survive his psychopathic act, has been to strengthen the West by ending its complacency and giving it purpose. Very sadly, it has come too late for Ukraine today, but possibly not for future actions by other dictators and their allies.

The invasion of Ukraine is so tragic, so pointless and so self-defeating, words fail commentators. Surely it marks the end of Putin and Russian expansionism in the medium term. But the shorter-term costs will sadly be enormous.

But turn to China for a moment. They are playing a fairly clever hand. Abstaining in the UN, offering to mediate, criticising the invasion but also Ukraine joining NATO, they are just about holding their own.

But not for long. They will have to get off the fence. Trust in China is very low, and the West is hardening its stance against those who threaten its democratic future…finally.

Could this be China’s moment to reposition itself? President Xi Jinping must realise Putin is an unstable ally unlikely to recover from his disastrous Ukrainian venture. He must also realise that the West can wreak untold economic havoc if they remain united. China’s success story is all about growth. Imagine if this was put in jeopardy by an attack on Taiwan for example?

China could be really smart by dropping its default bellicose behaviour, instead extending its influence through a new, mature, more sophisticated approach to international affairs, which allows them to move closer to the heart of the international community.

Imagine. Putin oversteps the mark one last time and China joins the West in condemning Russia at the UN. It would also have the additional advantage of stealing a march on arch regional competitor, India, whose nationalist Prime Minister, Modi, has appalled observers by his equivocation over the invasion. China starts to court Taiwan and indeed the people of Hong Kong, not threaten them. China reduces tensions in the South China Sea. China, without apology, makes quiet concessions on the treatment of the Uyghurs, subtly acknowledging a new balance between security and human rights.

One accepts this may seem too naïve and idealistic in such grim times. But it would mark China’s coming of age as a self-confident international community member. It would be smart politics by shaping events further through wholly constructive actions.

One can only hope. And as we watch war unfold brutally in Europe, that is all we have just now.