London has more than 20 hospitals that serve its population of over 9 million people. Most of these are run by the NHS, but a few are private hospitals, often run by the British United Provident Association, a private health provider, which usually, like the NHS, goes by its initials. BUPA was founded in 1947 and provides competition for the NHS, and some companies offer private health for their employees as a perk to attract applicants. Most people are happy enough, however, to rely on the NHS for healthcare provision.

The BBC is one of the most trusted of British institutions. ‘I heard it on the BBC,’ is a common claim as to the verity of a statement around the world. The implication is that it must be right because the BBC said it. People trust the organisation in the way they often do not trust statements made by their own governments, where the media outlets are all too often controlled by the very governments who want their statements taken on trust.

David Bowie was one of those singers who made it through to the mainstream and when he died of cancer at the age of sixty-nine, having just failed to reach his biblical allotment of three score years and ten, politicians of all different stripes were lining up to praise him even if they had little time for his music when he was alive. People spontaneously wanted to express their grief at his passing and many of them went to a Brixton mural to do so.