The NHS can’t survive without payment for frontline treatments | Simon Jenkins

Rationing supply of care by payment may offend tradition, but rationing by chaos is cruel

• NHS A&E crisis worst ever, new figures show: Politics Live blog

Politicians have gone mad. The NHS is to be rescued with £2bn from the banks (Tories), with £2.5bn from cigarettes (Labour), with £1.5bn from London mansions (Labour), with the same £1.5bn for Scottish nurses (Scottish Labour) or with £8bn “from the proceeds of growth” (the Lib Dems). Or it can always be res...