The Politics Column: Blair Says His NHS Reforms Are Bearing Fruit-And So They Are, for Investors in PFI Schemes and for Overseas Companies with Risk-Free Contracts

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According to Patricia Hewitt the NHS has had its best year ever. So why is the Royal College of Nursing threatening industrial action over cuts and closures, and why did the annual conference of Unison, traditional Labour supporters, greet the secretary of state with heckling? In her words, "the NHS must modernise or die". So why, from Surrey to Manchester and from Gateshead to Shropshire, are local people banding into hospital action groups and "Keep our NHS public" campaigns in an effort to defend the health service? The chief targets for cuts are mental health services, palliative care, older people's care and emergency hospital care, yet Hewitt maintains, to general derision, that quality will not be affected.

The government says the NHS's deficits …