SIR – The greatest irony of all time must be that at the end of the war this country was bankrupt. A team led by Maynard Keynes negotiated a loan from the US/Canada to keep the country going on a day-to-day basis. There was no spare money and there was proper austerity, so how did we get the NHS up and running in 1948?

The answer was not hard to find; it was underwritten by the fact they knew they would be getting American money in the form of Marshall aid (which was really a gift to European countries because of the fear of Communism).

In other countries they built up industries with the aid; in this country, after years of waiting, it enabled the Government to set up the health service. It also enabled Aneurin Bevan to say he had stuffed their mouths with gold when they bought off the consultants and doctors to gain their support for the NHS, so it’s ironic that the very nation that despises Socialism and socialist health care unwittingly helped to create one in this country.

So when we bang on about whose’s health service it is, belongs to spare a thought for General George Marshall.

Alan Hough, Midland Road, Baildon