Bagehot The Lib Dems draw blood

摘要

IN OLD-fashioned zoos, animals that mauled a keeper were tak en away and shot. Once a furry inmate acquires a taste for hu man flesh, the theory went, it can never be trusted again. The ju nior partners in Britain's coalition government, the Liberal Democrats, have just taken their first big bite out of the Conserva tives, demanding that a plan to reform the National Health Ser vice (nhs) be delayed and stripped of its boldest elements. Plenty of Conservative mps would dispatch the Lib Dems now if they could. Many never trusted their coalition partners, and Lib Dem attacks on the nhs plans-notably their calls to slow and dilute reforms promoting market-based competition-have confirmed their worst suspicions.