Nye Bevan argued like someone willing to go to the wall for what he was saying. He spoke belligerently. He spoke as though to oppose what he was saying would be to offend against common decency. British politicians don't talk that way any more, even when it matters. Take Andrew Lansley, the secretary of state for health and once the principal private secretary to Norman Tebbit. Like so many of his cabinet colleagues, and so many of those student politicians in the shadow cabinet, he appears to grasp the bullet points of an argument without ever grasping the argument. There's a little moral seasoning to his dinner party rhetoric, a little dead-eyed flutter of words like 'innovation' and 'commitment', but Lansley has no feeling for the needs and fears of people who go to the doctor. He has no idea, but plenty to say.

LRB 3 March 2011 | PDF Download