Are the Tory Party finally awakening to public opposition to mass privatisation?

After the leaked memo earlier this week that suggested that the Government is having cold feet with its plans to sell off just about everything, one of the pioneers of this ultra neo-liberal approach has decided to put on the brakes as well.

Last year, this blog drew attention to the desire by Suffolk County Council to use the budget crisis to fulfil their Thatcherite dreams. Well, it appears that they are now having second thoughts. In an eerily similar process to Cameron's 'listening exercise' on the NHS, Suffolk have announced what they have termed a 'period of 'reflection'.

The key question is this: are the Tories really rethinking their plans, or is this an attempt to turn down the political heat for a while (particularly until after today's elections)?

If they are reconsidering, then why? Is this the influence of the apparently resurgent left-wing of the Liberal Democrats? Or is it a sudden realisation, in the wake of the NHS reform debacle, that the public aren't prepared to sit back as quiety as Cameron hopes while a Conservative Party that failed to win the last general election dismantles public services without a mandate, all in the name of deficit reduction?

Oh. There is a third option, which that the senior Tories have suddenly grown a conscience... but that's the least plausible of all.