'Save our NHS': activism, information-based expertise and the 'new times' of the 1980s. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Crane, Jennifer
• Is Part Of: Contemporary British history. Volume 33:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 52
• Page End: 74
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: NHS -- activism -- campaigning -- expertise -- 1980s; Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth II, 1952- -- Periodicals; Great Britain -- History -- 20th century -- Periodicals; 941.085
• DOI: 10.1080/13619462.2018.1525299
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1361-9462

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines activism in defence of the National Health Service (NHS), which emerges in the 1960s to defend local hospitals from closure. From the mid-1980s, a new form of campaigning developed, which sought to protect the Service nationally. Tracing this campaigning illuminates, first, that small groups played a significant role in negotiating political change, and in contributing to cultural change which, in turn, has become politically powerful. Second, this demonstrates that the 1980s were 'new times' in welfare politics, as Thatcher's changes fostered voluntary interest in information-led expertise, and a new vision of the NHS as a significant, much valued, national institution.