“NHS has saved my life, no question"

You can understand why Boris said that.  But it’s simply a misrepresentation of the reality of things.  The NHS has never saved anyone.  It never will.   

As Boris generously continued by naming the people who actually did save his life we can be thankful that they did just that.  People saved his life.   

But there is more to it that that.  He might well have said "Government policy saved my life, no question".  And he would have been right.   

For 70 years successive governments have poured taxpayers money into the NHS.  It is their decisions over these years that have created the current system of healthcare called the NHS.   

So we really could stand on the rooftops on Thursday and clap Labour and Conservative governments for continuing to support healthcare they way they have done.   

But as they say, if things go well, praise the NHS.  If they go badly, blame the government.