The National Health Service is at risk of being eroded and privatized if Boris Johnson and Donald Trump get their way. Opening a service already underfunded and riven with privatization to a further round of exploitation by the vultures of the US pharmaceutical industry could really be the moment that the NHS as its been known begins to end.

However, the battle for the soul of the NHS — the fight to keep this vital service public, free at point of use, and democratic — has been raging much longer. For decades, the Tories have tried to undermine what is unique and cherished about the NHS, the bulwark it offers against the market in people’s lives, at every opportunity. Whatever the outcome of Thursday’s election, the Labour Party will need to confront the intrusion of markets and private interests head-on.

While the NHS today outpolls every other institution — including the monarchy — in popularity among Britons, it is also, sadly, living proof of a dream compromised. Reduced to a hobbled mess of public and private institutions crisscrossed by markets, it is an example of far-reaching potential stymied. The story of the British NHS is thus much more than a story about caring for the sick.