As if you didn't know, the news has arrived from a reputable source that, by and large, the "crumbling maternity wards" of the NHS do a very shoddy job for mothers.
Given this country's habitual worship at the altar of our monolithic, money-guzzling health system, you know that something's got to be preeeetty bad before complaints get a real airing. I'd say that an authoritative report demonstrating incompetence in a core responsibility would get over that test - and even our NHS-adoring MSM seems to agree.
There's a memorable passage in Mark Steyn's great book America Alone which points out the fact that there are more scanners in the city of Philadelphia, with its privatised medical system, than there are in the whole of Canada, with its nationalised system. D'you reckon he might be on to something..?
Oh, and as if this post weren't controversial enough... I've been watching the goggle box at the parental abode this evening (he said, careful to point out that he's not violating his TV ownership abstinence) and I see that the BBC - the BeeBeeCee, no less! - stated in their report on this subject that a significant cause of the problems of maternity wards in the south of England is the booming birth rate driven by immigration! I reckon those right-wing, flag-waving, fear-mongering rabble-rousers might be on to something, too...