Well now we know how Tony Blair would vote in the poll. Yesterday he shot down Brown's hints that the NHS should be taken away from political control. He described it as "a great idea in theory", but warned it would disrupt the reforms and become a device for avoiding tough decisions. Blair also admitted that his programme of reform was slow to start off with and is unpopular with voters and professionals in the NHS.
With only days to go in Mr Blair's premiership and after 10 long years, he has finally given a speech where every he said was honest and pretty much on the money. It would put a stop to Blair's mis-informed reforms. He was painfully slow to pick up the problems in 1997 and it is unpopular with professionals and voters - for good reason! I do also suspect, however, that an NHS in a Quango's hands would not be free from political influence (especially not with Brown as PM) and it would not solve the problem (though I also feel that it can hardly get any worse than the leadership of Hewitt and the DoH). Well done Tony, it's taken a long time but I reckon you're just about get the hand of the Prime Minister thing.