Thousands of people have joined a Twitter campaign defending the NHS from attacks in America, causing the micro-blogging platform to crash. The row was sparked by US President Obama’s $100bn plans for reforming healthcare in the US, away from private medical plans and towards a state-run system akin to the NHS. The move has drawn […]
Thousands of people have joined a Twitter campaign defending the NHS from attacks in America, causing the micro-blogging platform to crash. The row was sparked by US President Obama’s $100bn plans for reforming healthcare in the US, away from private medical plans and towards a state-run system akin to the NHS. The move has drawn criticism from Republicans, who have branded the NHS as “evil and Orwellian”. This in turn has sparked a transatlantic debate that spilled over to Twitter. A hashtag campaign #welovetheNHS campaign was launched by Britons keen to counter the allegations, and the sheer number of messages added apparently crashed the Twitter site on Wednesday.
The Twitter campaign has attracted support from politicians including Gordon Brown and David Cameron alongside other high profile figures including Stephen Hawking and Stephen Fry.
The prime minister posted a message using the hashtag saying the service “often makes the difference”, and added “thanks for always being there”.
14/08/2009
