If there’s anything that stands out from Andrew Lansley’s interview with the Sunday Times (£) it is his air of quiet defiance. Of course, the Health Secretary sounds
some of the conciliatory notes that have crept in to the government’s rhetoric since they decided to pause, listen and engage on NHS reform. But he also stands up for the original reforms as he
conceived them. “From my point of view,” he says, “the White Paper was setting out what sensible, intelligent people inside the NHS were saying.” For him, the concerns that
remain are not with the general thrust of his reforms, but with “implementation, the nuts and bolts of how it will work.”
Lansley also makes sure to bind Cameron into the White Paper. “David and I go back 20 years,” he stresses, “and every step of the way we’ve worked together on this.”
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