by Dan Hodges

It was a moving scene. David Cameron fixed the final clasp on his greatcoat, set his tall Shako cap upon his head and slid the brown leather pack across his broad shoulders. There was much he wanted to say to his tearful wife and children, but the words would not come. Instead, he turned and, without a backward glance, stepped into the darkness and was gone.

When the prime minister announced on Monday his comprehensive NHS reform programme, he was announcing the invasion of Russia. Cameron is about to drive his party through thousands of miles of cruel, frozen, inhospitable terrain. They will face fear, famine and deprivation. Experience suffering beyond endurance. And then they will come home, broken, bitter and defeated.

“Every year we delay, every year without improving our schools is another year of children let down, another year our health outcomes lag behind the rest of Europe, another year that trust and confidence in law and order erodes”, he said. Brave words. Defiant words. Utterly, utterly futile words. (more…)