Phil Simmons

The most astonishing farrago of misrepresentation, false assertions, and outright lies I’ve seen in a purported documentary in many a long year. Starting with an attempt to frame the current condition of the NHS in terms of non-existent public healthcare in the US, Pilger moves to interviews with notorious left-wing activists presented as though they are ‘authorities’, through exaggerated anecdote and historical mythologising, to his own foregone conclusion that British public health provision is being run purely for profit. Any verifiable fact is treated as an optional extra that’s been left out of the mix. Structurally it’s rubbish too, throwing together unconnected statements, clips, portentous narration and dramatic music with the manipulative abandon of the propagandist. Pilger has extensive form, over nearly 50 years, with this kind of scaremongering based on false premisses, and he seems to be getting worse with age. I cannot for the life of me understand what motivated the ITV network to turn over nearly two hours of screen time to it. It’s a shabby and disgraceful piece of work by someone who long ago lost any credibility he may have had as a serious journalist.