File on 4 Investigates Folgen

As the NHS reaches its 70th anniversary, Adrian Goldberg investigates why the very mention of the word "private" - or, even more, privatisation - in UK health care provokes fierce opposition. No party dare publicly claim anything less than unswerving support for the NHS and its supporting mantra that health care should be "free at the point of delivery." Yet millions of people are treated by a private dentist. Millions more think nothing of having to pay for eye tests and the spectacles prescribed by opticians who work for "for-profit" businesses. GP practices are independent-run businesses. Routine operations are often outsourced to private hospitals. Yet NHS contracts are increasingly fulfilled by private health providers. While campaigners protest, most people continue having treatment. So what is at the root of opposition to private health care? Is it the fear of replicating the US system where ability to pay is often a condition of receiving health care? If good health care is the last standing public good is that because it's the last vestige of socialism, clung to by the left? Is there a fear that the nature of health care changes when a commercial transaction lies behind it? Do nostalgia and a notion of "fairness" play a part? And does the fear of opposition encourage a policy of reform by stealth which in turn fuels suspicion and more opposition?Adrian's mother was a domestic at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham for more than 20 years; his first job was working for the West Midlands Regional Health Authority, while his sister is a nurse. The programme takes Adrian on a personal journey to discover the true nature of opposition to private provision. On the way he talks to patients, practitioners and experts on health provision.

If fake news is poisoning public debate, then what is it doing to the financial markets?Short-sellers - investors who bet on a company's shares falling, not rising- have a mixed reputation. For some they play a vital role, exposing weak companies - and can make big profits as a result. But others accuse them of using fake information to deliberately damage otherwise healthy businesses.File on 4 looks into the hidden world of the short sellers, the researchers who give them the information to make their bets and the companies who fall victim to what they publish. Are the shorters overstepping the stock market's rules on fairness and transparency?Reporter: Geoff White Producer: Rob Cave Editor: Gail Champion.

For years, the so-called Islamic State has managed to attract thousands of wannabe jihadis and jihadi brides to join their caliphate. The extremist propaganda, online videos and recruiters have seen thousands of people from all over the world flock to Iraq and Syria to join IS; including 850 men, women and children from the UK. The brutality of the terror group is now well known, partly due to their own publicity online. Videos and stories of beheadings, floggings and sex slaves have been released to the public, drawing in a new wave of foreign fighters. IS has since had setbacks, losing ground in it's strongholds in Iraq and Syria and its administrative capital Raqqa. But the caliphate has not admitted defeat, instead promising more attacks in the West. It's thought 50% of UK citizens who left to join IS, have now returned home- the rest are dead, detained or missing. What happens to these returnees when they come back? With only a minority being prosecuted and imprisoned, what efforts are being made to de-radicalise the rest? This investigation explores the danger posed by UK returnees, the efforts to de-radicalise and reintegrate them and the difficulties of proving they were ever part of the caliphate once they've returned home. Reporter: Paul Kenyon Producer: Kate West Editor: Gail Champion.