Political column - July 8

That's if the NHS is considered a male. If the NHS is female, she's got about another eight years. That's based on UK average life expectancy.

There does seem some measure of agreement that the way things are going the National Health Service, which celebrated its 75th birthday this week, may not be long for this world.

Two thirds of striking junior doctors told a British Medical Association survey that they were worried the NHS would not survive the next 10 years. According to Sir Keir Starmer, the NHS has got just five years left if the Tories remain in government.

The King's Fund, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust say the NHS is in a critical condition and that without major investment it won't reach its 100 birthday.

And yet the NHS will not die. Because there also does seem to be agreement, based on polls which show rock solid support for the institution, that collectively we will do whatever it takes to keep it going.

The British attitude to the NHS is complicated. On the one hand, we venerate and cherish it. On the other, some of the very same people who venerate and cherish it may say that it under-performs, and that it has appalling waiting lists and substandard medical outcomes.

In effect they are saying that the NHS is both wonderful and rubbish.

During the Covid crisis we clapped for the NHS, clapped so hard that the palms stung, while at the same time some of the most enthusiastic and zealous clappers were claiming – quite wrongly, but they said it nevertheless – that the UK was topping the international league table for Covid deaths.

What is certain is that many Britons caught Covid in NHS hospitals. By the middle of May 2020, at least 15.8 per cent of patients with Covid in UK hospitals had become infected after their admission (source: The Lancet).

The old cliche was that the NHS was the envy of the world, but a study published a few days ago showed that among major nations the British health service was the second worst when it came to saving lives. The worst? America.

When I had my own medical crisis a couple of years ago my NHS treatment was exemplary and the ambulance even arrived without having been called. But you do hear about, and read about, the real life experiences of others which wouldn't be out of place in a Third World country.

The NHS is "free" which makes it very popular, and being very popular translates into crushing demand.

As it turns 75, there's something we have to face up. The NHS remains a great British institution, but by international standards it is no longer a good one.

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Jeremy Clarkson has been in the news again, although as he's in the news so often it's probably not news that he's in the news, it would be news if he wasn't in the news.

He started his career with our newspaper group, you know.

"I started small, on the Shropshire Star with little Peugeots and Fiats and worked my way up to Ford Granadas and Rovers..." he said in his final column for the Top Gear magazine back in 2015.

I've heard in the past that he was of this parish and have always wanted to find one of Jezza's early car reviews for us so see what his writing style was like.

But here's the surprising thing. I have yet to find anybody who can remember him.

Shropshire's long time motoring correspondent was the late Tom Leake. Maybe young Jeremy was a roving correspondent who never appeared in the office. Or maybe he was actually based in Walsall. Or both.

A colleague from back in the day told me: “He worked at the Walsall office of the Express and Star in a reporting role.

“I remember Jeremy Clarkson standing talking to the news editor, Derek Tucker. He was such a tall youngster and I asked somebody ‘who’s that?’ They said ‘That’s Jeremy Clarkson. He is at the Walsall office. He is going to go places.’”

He did, too.