Health Warning

Aside from ending boom and bust and saving the world, the Glorious Successor is also noted for originating the Private Finance Initiative, whereby profit-making companies make a profit and health service customers make do. Now that the banks are no longer lending, despite having been politely asked to do so by both Gordon and his little Darling, PFI is in trouble too. An email from a CEO of one of NHS plc's regional branches notes that "PFIs have always been the NHS's 'plan A' for building new hospitals", and that, as one would expect of a government with no reverse gear, "There was never a 'plan B'". With equally predictable New New Labour dynamism and sense of responsibility, the Minister of Health Privatisation has "asked David Nicholson [NHS chief executive] to go away and think very hard about what happens next".