Given I've met him on a number of occasions and heard him speak and read a lot of what he has written about the NHS, and the fact that he was a named party in a legal suit (still ongoing) against Jeremy Hunt for his actions in stealth privatisation of the NHS, I would wager a considerable amount that he would not want his death to be used as an excuse to repress his sentiments on the NHS and the governments mishandling of it.

The fact that you choose to ignore the issues and deride someone for bring them up is more of an insult to Hawking than talking about them and lamenting his loss for those reasons.

Your reaction reminds me of Republicans in the US who say "now is not the time to talk about gun control". Without Hawking here to carry on his campaign it's vitally important for anyone who cares about it to keep his words in people's minds and carry on with him campaign.

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Today is the perfect time to highlight all his life's work from his excellent work within the field of physics, his books with Leonard Mlodinow (very accessible), his fight against MND, his cultural appearances and his campaigning for the NHS.

Edited by CambridgeEagle (14 Mar 2018 10.35am)

I find these posts totally inappropriate and you people are ruining this thread

If you look at the links I shared you will see Hawking's views on this for yourself.

I should inform you that Hawking is a Labour voter. Indeed in 2017 he said; “I’m voting Labour because another five years of Conservative government would be a disaster for the NHS, the police and other public services".

I quite agree with him and am happy to share his views with you all while celebrating his achievements. His choice of Act I of Die Walkure on Desert Island Discs is something else of which I approve!

CE is out of order and you just defend him because he's apart of your political tribe.

I'm sure that if some famous celebrity who also had voted Tory had died that those scoring political points would also be criticised....... and rightly so.

This should have just been a remembrance thread instead of having politics introduced into it.

It's not as though there aren't plenty of threads for that.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

It is a remembrance thread. You're just trying to whitewash the parts of Hawking's work with which you don't agree.

Lamenting his loss in the campaign for protection of the NHS and his outspoken defence of it is hardly outrageous. Over the past year this had been one of Hawking's principal endeavours, so to pretend it wasn't simply because it involves politics is reprehensible.

It's certainly not "scoring points".

Given this thread is about Hawking and his life's work it seems to me to be a perfect place to discuss something he was passionate enough about to give public lectures on, write a number of newspaper articles about, argue publicly with Jeremy Hunt over and add his name to a list of plaintiffs on a court case concerning this issue.

It would certainly be different if it was simply a case of financial support or happened years ago. The fact is those articles I linked are all within the past 12 months and the case I mentioned still ongoing. It's sad he won't be able to help lead it to a positive conclusion and live to see the NHS saved.

I dunno. One of my heroes is Morrissey, even though I fully acknowledge he has acquired some atrocious political views since sodding off to LA. I will be almost relieved when he does crock it and stops ruining my idolisation of him.

Hawking political views are inseparable from the man himself, because they come from a personal experience. He says himself he would have died decades ago without the NHS, and the fact that he tried to return the favour by raising his voice should, IMO, be part of what is being celebrated today about his life.

If punk ever happened I'd be preaching the law, instead of listenin to Lydon lecture BBC4