I remember listening to a speech by the then health secretary Andrew Lansley in 2010 to the national social services conference in which he revealed that in opposition he had once considered handing over the entire health function to local government.

The reason he decided against the idea was because it would have placed an impossible burden on councillors; in prioritisng whether to put money into a council service or health the latter would invariably win. Indeed, as we have seen with then ring-fencing of the NHS budget in the Spending Review that is precisely what has happened.