Lib Dems tilting at windmills as free market tornado about to hit NHS

Nick Clegg once again demonstrates his disposable morals with a contrived letter co-signed with Baroness Williams purporting to defend the NHS. Whilst Williams has been a fierce and effective critic this latest stunt is merely to save Lib Dem faces as we approach the May election season. Is it also a coincidence that Clegg’s letter surfaces at the same time as a report by right wing think tank Reform? http://news.sky.com/home/politics/article/16178515

Reform’s report is a pathetic justification for the myth that ‘competition’ can drive up standards for patients and lower costs. It is a rehash of the privatisation debate that plagued social policy in the 80’s. Most of us are old enough to remember the smokescreen of efficiency promulgating myths of privatisation by Nicolas Ridley and Margaret Thatcher. We are also young enough to have lived through decades of the crippling price inflation of privatised water, gas electricity and transport not to be fooled by Reform’s spurious attempts to justify privatising the health service. http://www.reform.co.uk/pages/4271/view

Anna Rose