Flushed with the massive bung from the Prime Minister, the NHS appears to have decided it must take over cash-strapped local government judging by its latest so-called long-term plan. It is not wrong in its approach to responding to huge pressures on the hospital acute sector, but it doesn't half raise some questions about which part of the public sector should be responsible for what.

The NHS plan tries to re-brand itself as a ‘health' service not a ‘healthcare' service, moving away from its current focus on the acute sector and more into prevention. There is, of course, finger-wagging about smoking, diet, alcohol or what the tabloids would call ‘nannying', which attracted an inordinate amount of pre-launch publicity from leaks last week.