EDITOR, — Chris Ham denies that government policies “are guided by a … hidden agenda which, through a series of incremental steps, will result in more private involvement in the financing and delivery of health services…. Politicians [are] not that clever [and] for any government to undermine the NHS, however surreptitiously, would be electoral suicide. In practice, health policy is more the result of cock up than conspiracy.”1

The Conservatives gained power in 1979 with a simple agenda: to remove, so far as possible, social decisions from the elected government so that they become byproducts of the pursuit of profit in deregulated markets. The contradiction inherent in running a popular socialised service as a competitive business is obvious. Even the stupidest politician knows that if you …