Here’s one more reason to vote vote vote for socialized health care. You might get a brand new national holiday out of it!

Gordon Brown should mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS this year by turning its birthday on July 5 into an extra annual bank holiday, a leading Labour thinktank will urge today.
The Fabian Society will say the prime minister has long dreamed of establishing a “British day” to celebrate nationhood. The most appropriate date would be on the anniversary of the health service – an institution which appeals equally to people in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland…
In 2006, before Brown became prime minister, he told a Fabian conference: “What is the British equivalent of the US fourth of July, or even the French 14th of July? … What is our equivalent for a national celebration of who we are and what we stand for?” He said he had in mind giving the country a new public holiday.

Gotcha. The essence of contemporary British national identity is defined by waiting two years for a hip replacement.