ON FRIDAY, July 5, Defend Our NHS York celebrated the 65th birthday of the NHS by setting up a stall in Parliament Street.

We invited people to support the NHS by signing a petition against the moves to extend privatisation within our precious public health care system. In two-and-a-half hours, we collected more than 400 signatures. People queued to sign and mostly approached the stall before being asked.

We wonder if our peaceful and very English event in any way parallels the massive demonstrations by Egyptians to protect their fledgling democracy.

For our mature democracy is also under threat. The coalition Government had no mandate for NHS changes. If we had known what they were about to do, the election result would have been very different.

On reflection, should we have been so pleased with 400-plus signatures, when we know that 70 per cent of the population rated the NHS highly satisfactory before the last election?

Are we too comfortably engrossed in our personal lives to care that the the welfare state is being dismantled before our eyes?

The NHS, and British democracy (the oldest in the world), still have to be fought for.

Anne Leonard, Fairway, York.