JEFF Williams (‘Going Full Circle’, 16 March) makes a passionate statement about the future of the NHS. However, there are three fundamental errors in his argument.

Firstly, the NHS was founded by a Labour government following a report by a Liberal politician (Beveridge) commissioned by a coalition government under Churchill (Conservative), therefore a system agreed by all irrespective of their political persuasion.

Secondly, the NHS has not recently suffered from reduced funding; in fact year-on-year its direct state funding has increased after inflation – it can of course be argued that more should be allocated to meet demands of an ageing population, etc, but it is wrong to claim that funding has been reduced.

Thirdly, Mr Williams takes a mis-quotation from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher completely out of context; her words ‘no such thing as society’ were part of a speech that went on to explain that individuals have a responsibility to themselves and to their neighbours and society is therefore “not an abstraction, separate from the men and women who composed it, but a living structure of individuals, families, neighbours and voluntary associations”.

Furthermore, she objected to “the confusion of society with the State as the helper of first resort” – in other words, try to accept responsibility for yourself and those closest to you and look to the State only as a last resort – not as a means of abrogating your own responsibilities. If you read the speech in full, it clearly never referred to the NHS but has often been misused by those with a political point to make.

G Smith

Drew Close, Poole