Yesterday I was hypothesising about how Number 10 would be thinking about the politics of the NHS in its overall political strategy for the next election. I suggested that given the failure of the last year it will now not be able to do as well in comparison with the Labour opposition on the issue of the NHS as it did at the last election. If it were wise it would try and discount the extent to which it could neutralise the NHS as an issue and get used to the fact that at the next election it would be 15 points behind the Labour Party in answer to the question, “Which Party has the best policy on the NHS?”.

Yesterday someone pointed out to me that a MORI poll last week gave the Labour Party a 16 point lead on that question.