What modern politics can learn from a Welsh maverick

David Taylor

Tim Price’s play about Aneurin Bevan, featuring Michael Sheen’s outstanding performance at the National Theatre (returning to Wales Millennium Centre soon for its final run), is more than biographical theatre.

It’s a study in how politics actually worked when politicians possessed genuine conviction – and a sobering reminder of what we have lost.

The art of political disruption

The production reveals not just Bevan’s character but his method. The play focuses on his creation of the NHS and chronicles his battle with the British Medical Association and how he overcame them. When the BMA resisted his proposal, he didn’t waste months on protracted talks. He announced the NHS would launch on 5 July 1948 with or without their support. This forced their hand in ways that endless committee negotiations never could have achieved.

Watching this dramatised, I was struck by an unlikely parallel: the tactical similarities between Bevan and Donald Trump. An uncomfortable comparison, given their opposing values, yet both understood that projecting strength forces opponents to engage rather than simply ignore you. When the BMA refused to negotiate, Bevan pressed ahead regardless. Critics called this reckless and dangerous. Perhaps it was. But it delivered universal healthcare.

Trump’s tariff threats work on the same principle – creating urgency that forces trading partners to the negotiating table rather than allowing them to maintain the status quo. The lesson isn’t ideological – disruptive tactics work regardless of political position. What matters is the willingness to break established patterns when necessary.

What distinguished Bevan, however, was knowing precisely when to pick his fights. This wasn’t random disruption but calculated strategy. The NHS was worth risking everything for. That distinction separates the maverick from the merely destructive.

What contemporary politics lacks

The most sobering aspect of watching “Nye” is recognising how much political courage has simply disappeared. Too many of today’s politicians live in perpetual fear of polling data and focus groups. They have confused caution with wisdom, consensus with strength. Bevan was unfazed by being labelled the “Bollinger Bolshevik” – a nickname that mocked his taste for champagne whilst championing the working class. Modern leaders would find such contradictions unbearable.

Bevan understood something we have forgotten – sometimes you must force people to choose sides. His approach created urgency rather than seeking compromise from weakness. What appeared to be recklessness was actually strategic clarity – he recognised that bold action creates lasting change whilst incremental adjustments typically preserve whatever you’re attempting to reform.

The sanitised alternative

Westminster today operates through careful positioning that may feel safer but rarely delivers meaningful change. Bevan confronted not merely the BMA, but vast swathes of the establishment including some of his own cabinet colleagues. The scale of opposition would terrify many contemporary politicians into immediate retreat.

“Nye” arrives when his creation faces unprecedented challenges. Watching his story, one wonders where such conviction disappeared. Genuine reform demands leaders willing to be authentically unpopular, not merely inconvenienced by unfavourable headlines.

This poses an uncomfortable question for our times. Wes Streeting is amongst the most capable of current Cabinet Ministers and perhaps the most likely to emulate Bevan’s reforming zeal – to take genuine risks and show courage rather than act as manager of the system. Given the NHS crisis across the UK, such leadership will be essential. Whether our political culture permits this kind of approach remains to be seen.

Nye finishes its run at the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre on 16 August and then transfers to the Wales Millennium Centre’s Donald Gordon Theatre, where it plays from 22 to 30 August.

David Taylor is a former Welsh Labour special adviser.