If the National Health Service was being formed this morning, there would be many who would mistrust it as a government plot. A means of control. A giant lab, submitting the population to unwarranted experimentation... /1

...these people would, unlike my father, my mother, my extended working-class family, deny themselves the miracle of Penicillin. Mass screening. Mass inoculation programmes that ensured release from centuries-old scourges. The safety net that means I write this tweet today. /2

Mistrust can be a death sentence as well as an insurance policy. Necessary when in clear peril. Perilous when refusing the generational benefits of caring experts that coherent societies are best equipped to bring. /3

There are times to be sceptical. To scrutinise and doubt. And there are times to listen. To trust. To accept the gifts we are given. To fight a common enemy together. The National Health Service is what happens when a society unites to conquer. Mistrust is its destroyer. //