A Conservative councillor in Surrey who is a member of the Health Scrutiny Committee at the County Council has written the most astonishing email to members of the committee saying that the NHS is a Marxist organisation and that people who smoke, drink or are overweight should be treated as second class patients.  He wants to apply the same rules to people who take part in dangerous activities.  He believes that would drive them to move out of Surrey which in the end would mean that those who are left would get better treatment and that would drive up house prices.

You must admit that is an unusual point of view.

Of course, as a private individual, John Butcher would have a right to believe that and even to say it but I believe that elected councillors have to be more careful about the views they express in public especially when they hold a position of scrutinising health care in the county.  I have asked the Standards Committee of Surrey County Council to investigate whether the contents of Cllr Butcher’s email to see whether it breaches the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.