If the National Health Service is truly Britain’s national religion, as the late Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson observed, then Wes Streeting would like voters to believe he is Martin Luther. The shadow health secretary rejects the unquestioning worship that too often features in his party’s rhetoric on the NHS, and rightly so. In a week in which public satisfaction with the health service has fallen to its lowest level in four decades, voters deserve candour and practical solutions. If the opinion polls on voting intentions at the next election prove correct, it will fall to Mr Streeting to provide both.
In the past, Labour offered little beyond misty-eyed homilies to Aneurin Bevan and blank cheques. The former is an infantile political reflex and if the
