The coalition is in a mess of its own making over the NHS

The NHS is, as Nigel Lawson once remarked, the new national religion of this country. This makes it difficult to discuss the subject in a rational matter and any attempt to reform it is likely to run into its own Pilgrimage of Grace as Andrew Lansley and the coalition are discovering.

The government’s problem is that it can’t do a simple u-turn. As I say in the Mail on Sunday, Cameron can’t shelve this scheme without bringing his own judgement into question. Once Cameron and Clegg signed the introduction to the white paper setting out these reforms, they crossed the Rubicon. So instead the coalition is left trying to tinker and slow down the reforms to make them more politically palatable.

But this brings with it its own risk. For instance, if doctors are allowed to opt-out of GP-led commissioning, a concession floated in the Sunday Telegraph today, then there’ll be a two tier health service.