British parties stand by revered NHS principles despite funding gap

London

THE room was bare and crowded, and as patients waited impassively to see a doctor, workmen laboured noisily around them installing seating while one man vomited discreetly into a bucket.

Sometimes, when visiting a hospital here, it is hard to see why Britain's National Health Service is held in such high esteem that competing claims to be its protector could help decide the national elections next month.

Yet as much as ever, the health system, now creaking under the strain of an aging population and tight budgets, remains a touchstone of British life, an institution that has, to a remarkable degree, escaped the ideo…