[HPforGrownups] Another angle on St Mungo's

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 54595

Troels wrote:

> No doubt Lucius Malfoy make donations to keep up
> appearances (just see GoF ch. 36 where Fudge dismisses

> family - donations to excellent causes"), but the
> interesting question is how he chooses the causes
> to which he makes his donations - does he have any
> ulterior motives for donating to St. Mungo's instead
> of any of a number of other worthy causes?
>
> And what about Celestina Warbeck, who apparently
> also supports the hospital - is she an accomplice
> of Malfoy's ?

Possibly not. What JKR may be hinting at here is that the WW doesn't have an
equivalent of the National Health Service and that hospitals are funded the
way they used to be in the UK before 1948 - basically they were part of the
voluntary sector and depended totally on public donations to keep going.
There's no reference in canon to taxation (which funds the NHS in our world)
and the WW does seem to have a public sector with an "old-fashioned" feel -
Ministry men like Barty Crouch come across as very much like caricature
civil servants of the 1920s and the radio station also suggests the Reithian
BBC to me.

Maybe St Mungo's _depends_ on "old money" keeping it running with donations.
Maybe it doesn't have the kind of endowments which I theorise that the old
families, Hogwarts, etc have to keep them going.

Cheers

Ffred

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