Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS

“I GUESS I don’t know how it happened really,” Michelle Rodgers smiles. “You just put your head above the parapet and move forward. That was that really: there was me, knee-deep in trade unionism.”
But Rodgers, who was elected the first female president of rail union RMT earlier this year, could have ended up somewhere very different.
After leaving school, she initially trained as a chef — before having a motorbike accident, and ending up taking a job on the railways in 1989.

CONRAD LANDIN offers a guide to the diverse shows at Edinburgh Art Festival