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As someone who believes that a Labour government would be a calamity for Britain, I ought not to mind the recent fuss about NHS Wales. Yes, it is a disaster – as the Daily Mail has been cleverly highlighting. And it has been run by Labour for 15 years, so they’re guilty as charged. Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, makes this point powerfully today. But if the English NHS is much better by comparison to Wales, it’s not because of him, nor because of David Cameron. It’s because of Tony Blair.
The NHS in England was prescribed a heavy dose of market reform by the NHS Plan of 2000. This brilliant, radical and enduring document was written by three people born in the same Birmingham hospital: Alan Milburn, Darren Murphy and Simon Stevens.
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