The pin back in the hand grenade

I had not realised that Dr Sarah Wollaston, the GP, Conservative MP and former opponent of the health Bill, had come over to the Other Side until she asked a question of Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, in the Commons today:

I do not know any GPs who want to see inappropriate use of the private sector. They will be doing the commissioning and the public will be able to see what they are doing. Should we not let them get on with it?

She once called the reforms “a hand grenade” tossed into the NHS. Only three weeks ago Polly Toynbee was quoting her in support of dropping the Bill. But a fortnight ago the local press reported that she had changed her mind.

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• JohnJustice

  Obviously a case of party loyalty trumping professional considerations.

  I note that Dr Wallaston objection (as reported in the local press) was to ditching the bill “at the 11th hour”. In other words carrying on with it was the lesser of the evils’ which presumably took into account the damage to the Tories of dropping the bill at this late stage.

  I would only add that a lesser evil is still an evil