Michael Meacher MP

It’s all very well for Nick Clegg regaling us each day with what he’s going to do to Lansley and the NHS Bill if his amendments to it aren’t accepted by the Tories.   And now we learn what the Tory backwoodsmen are going to do if their ‘red lines’ are not accepted by Clegg.   But where’s Labour in all this?   We should all be grateful that Clegg – thanks to the electorate’s dumping him on 5 May – is now (at last) sticking his oar in over Lansley’s assault on the NHS.   But the fact is, Clegg’s position, flip-flopping all over the place on the NHS as on every other issue, isn’t ours.   His aim is to find a formula, if there is one, to keep his own party intact whilst staying (just) inside the Coalition.   Ours is a principled rejection of the whole Bill. (more…)