The risk of Lansley's reforms

The NHS Confederation has attacked the pace and nature of the government's health reforms, arguing that they create the "real danger of failures in quality of care or finances" in the NHS. Meanwhile, a poll of doctors has revealed these fears are shared by the vast majority of doctors working in the system.

As independent studies have demonstrated, the NHS in its current form does deliver efficient health care by international standards - yet, in his ruthless pursuit of his free-market ideal, Andrew Lansley is potentially putting the whole system at risk.

In all of this, it's worth remembering who the Secretary of State's key backers were in the run-up to the election, and the company he keeps.