There was a time during the last few months when those who were defending the NHS status quo turned the US into a pariah. I heard very sensible people say in public meetings “I won’t take any lessons from the USA about health care because their system is so bad’. This became a sort of “know nothing” rejection of an entire nation – and all of its knowledge. NOTHING from the USA was any good because their overall system was so bad.

Quite a few years ago I had similar feelings about the US because of the Vietnam War. I felt that the whole nation was irredeemably wrong and could find nothing of any use in the whole country. My Dad shared my politics but felt that the dismissal of an entire civilisation because of one, admittedly very large, experience was wrong. He used to have some very brief arguments with me.