When Blair went to market

doi:10.1136/bmj.39406.535451.59

BMJ 2007;335:1100 (24 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39406.535451.59

Views & reviews

Review of the Week

When Blair went to market

Tony Delamothe, deputy editor, BMJ

tdelamothe@bmj.com

Blair's Damascene conversion to market forces was one of themany differences he had with Gordon Brown, a new televisionseries has shown. Where does that leave the NHS under Blair'srival, asks Tony Delamothe

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Explicitly about the relationship between former prime ministerTony Blair and his chancellor, Gordon Brown, this programmeprovided an interesting insight into some of the key momentsof the Blair government's relationship with the NHS. It alsogave some hints as to what to expect from the Brown government.

First off was Blair bouncing Brown into providing five yearsof 5% annual increases in the NHS budget, which would bringUK spending up to the European average. Blair chose Sir DavidFrost's television programme for his momentous announcementone Sunday morning in January 2000. Minutes after the programme"Number 10 hit the phones." It being a Sunday, all the factsand figures were locked up in Whitehall offices. About the timethe Department of Health's chief economist had made the figuresadd up (using the sophisticated calculator of his daughter'sboyfriend) it dawned on Blair's advisers that Blair had not. . . [Full text of this article]