NHS, Police, BBC… is politicisation corrupting public services?

After the murder of Henry Nowak, the police have been at the centre of criticism about the politicisation of public services. Reform has criticised the police for enforcing a new system of two-tiered policing, where white citizens are more harshly handled than ethnic minorities. To some, it seems, the role of the police is not to uphold law and order, protecting the country’s citizens from violent crime, theft or fraud, but to instead signal the enlightened morality of the modern state.

West Midlands Police took matters into their own hands when they advised Birmingham City Council to ban fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending the Europa League match against Aston Villa last year. This was justified as acting in the public safety, but it was based on false information used to justify the political decision made by a supposedly neutral institution. This decision was condemned by the government and the opposition, with an offer of more police resources, but the decision was not overturned. Don’t the police exist to maintain public order, not to govern it?

One of the most politicised institutions is the NHS. From rainbows and pride lanyards to puberty blockers, the NHS’s adherence to gender ideology can border on the fanatical. This goes for both its staff and for the patients. The transgender clinic in Wales has been forced to cancel all of its gender-affirming care surgeries after alarm bells were raised about the referral rate in Wales, which was nearly four times higher than in England. Instead of welcoming an independent clinical review to ensure the protection of vulnerable patients, Matthew Jones, a Plaid Cymru member of the Welsh Assembly, stated that Wales was the ‘last bastion of dignity’.

But this politicisation is not limited to gender ideology. The maternity scandals facing the NHS demonstrated the widespread infiltration of politics into supposedly politically neutral institutions. The Ockenden review, an investigation into the failings at the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, demonstrated the structural issues within maternity services. There were issues of chronic understaffing, broken equipment, bad communication and a lack of standardised care.

Yet, the first paragraph in the BBC article covering the report opens with the argument that ‘racism and discrimination’ are embedded within the system, even though the issue is much deeper and more universal than that. Bringing the politics of race into the maternity ward is seemingly a token distraction from the fundamental failure to provide care and the safe delivery of babies across the UK. Instead of providing genuine answers or accountability to these public services, identitarian divides are highlighted instead.

The politicisation of public services has eroded the foundational trust in the UK state’s systems. Services are no longer only judged solely on whether they are efficient or reliable, but increasingly on what their practices reflect about the ideological beliefs of an influential minority. Does politics even have a place in the public sector? Should it follow the tone and ideology of the elected government? Can the public sector ever be impartial if it is employed by the state?