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I stuffed their mouths with gold.

— Aneurin Bevan Attributed

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Source, in full

Around 1948, Nye Bevan engineered a notorious "bribe" to win the support of hospital consultants. The father of the NHS made his declaration after he brokered a deal in which consultants were paid handsomely for their NHS work while allowing them to maintain private practices.

Notes from Wikiquote

Source: Quote and story in the Guardian, 2 July 2004.

More quotes by Aneurin Bevan

A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society.

In Place of Fear (1952)

There is only one hope for mankind — and that is democratic Socialism.

No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied aid because of lack of means.

Soon, if we are not more prudent, millions of people will be watching each other starve to death through expensive television sets.

In Place of Fear (1952)

Not even the apparently enlightened principle of the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ can excuse indifference to individual suffering. There is no test for progress other than its impact on the individual.

In Place of Fear (1952)

All Aneurin Bevan quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Aneurin Bevan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.