Birthday politics

摘要

No sooner had the new year begun than the parties grabbed scalpels and started scrapping for advantage in the operating theatre. In a message to health-service staff, Gordon Brown said this would be "the year in which we demonstrate beyond a doubt that the nhs is as vital for our next 60 years as it was for our last". Since Labour founded the health service in 1948-an act opposed then by the Tories-the prime minister's letter was pure politics. For his part, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, proclaimed an audacious ambition for the Tories "to replace Labour as the party of the nhs" in 2008.