Labour releases critique of Health and Social Care Bill as nurses vote 'no' to Lansley's reforms

In the wake of the Royal College of Nursing passing a vote of no-confidence in Andrew Lansley, Labour have produced a detailed document highlighting the key flaws of the NHS reform bill as it currently stands.

It is telling just how badly the reforms have progressed to date that, with the full use of the civil service (or, 'enemies of enterprise', if you prefer) to help it, the Government have managed to produce a fairly weak riposte to the charges laid at their door.

The truth is Government have - as the outcomes of the elections of 2001 and 2005 must have underlined to the Tory leadership - forgotten that the electorate isn't as right-wing as its press likes to believe. They are simply not willing to countenance the privatisation of the NHS. And they aren't willing to buy the line that giving private companies control over delivery of services and allowing for the outsourcing of health commissioning to private companies is somehow not the same as privatisation.

It is, and people know it.