As we observe from time to time, the only power the Tories have is to pollute government modernising proposals with their support. The Government understands this, the Opposition (who might benefit from acting on the advice) ignore it with a magnificent tribal stupidity.Dr Fox had a manifest opportunity to praise his opposite number and to sympathise with his difficulties. With what exquisite, invisible cruelty could the Dr pin the minister, wriggling, to the wall. Imagine Mr Milburn’s writhing and squirming, were Dr Fox to proselytise. He’d turn himself inside out in his efforts to hide from his own side. How can mature politicians resist this pleasure, of saying things that would make their opposite number curl up like a salt-covered slug? Dr Fox has forgotten the reason he went into politics.The Tory line to take was this. These foundation hospitals are a step in the right direction.

Everything that is wrong with them now (the result of debilitating compromises wrung out of them by the left) can be undone by a Conservative government But they are essential to our Tory purpose. They are the prerequisite for our policy of health vouchers to work. Yes, we simply couldn’t make our voucher system work without these hospitals reforms you are putting through now.Imagine how sick the entire Labour Party would feel at that They’d suffer a collective prolapse. You don’t know what that is, not unless you’ve been around pregnant sheep, but it’s not a pretty sight.Frank Dobson articulated the appeal of his suffering people: “For God’s sake leave us alone!” That resonated.It was the point David Hinchliffe had made so well He is chairman of the health committee. He pointed out the NHS has been reorganised 18 times in 20 years.

It’s like a shanty town, he said, made of shacks thrown up and as quickly pulled down. Some institutions he said – like Community Health Councils – were abolished before they were implemented. That was the best moment in years of watching parliament.Robin Cook lauded the proposals. He said he had heard a lot of twaddle about the superior managerial skills of the private sector.George Young mocked the idea these hospitals would be free from Whitehall control. They will be subject to an inspector appointed by the minister Their borrowing is to be limited by a regulator. And they can only exist in a framework of targets set by the Government.

Their boards are to be elected (by 0.5 per cent of the voting population). It’s like electing the management of your local Tesco but with the range, pricing and layout determined by central office.A great opportunity missed, the Tories say They’re right. They missed it by a mile.simoncarr75 hotmail
More from Simon Carr. Supporters of the euro are gloomy. In the next week or so Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will declare that their economic tests for membership of the single currency have not been met.