Listening is seriously damaging the coalition’s health. The Sunday Mirror carries
a report that chimes with a week
of rumours in Westminster: the NHS reforms are going to be significantly diluted to appease warring Liberal Democrats. The Mirror adds that Lansley is likely to quit in protest.
Matt d’Ancona argues, in his essential column this morning, that this is not a listening exercise but a ‘full blown carefully orchestrated retreat’. It is, if you will, a political version of the battle of Arnhem: the NHS reforms were a reform too far in this parliament, so tactical withdrawal is now imperative. Clegg and Cameron’s signatures are on the original White Paper. They have since made a great show about their differences, a cunning subterfuge designed to limit collateral damage as they press ahead with radical reform elsewhere. Lansley, it seems, will probably be expended on the bridge for the greater good.
D’Ancona has identified the plan’s one glaring weakness. Lansley still has allies on the Conservative backbenches who are determined to save his reforms as a matter of principle. If the reforms were a reform too far, then their death is an ideological concession too many. Although Nick de Bois, a leading spokesman of dissent, is now tarred by a possible conflict of interest, the resistance is strong.
Of all the words written on this issue in the last three months, few have concerned Labour or John Healey. The government is the sole author of its costly misfortune. It may yet get even costlier.
Comments