NHS bill passes

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This government is beyond disgusting. I can't describe how angry the Liberals and the Conservatives make me.

Gained a new found respect for Andy Burnham for his speech in the Commons today.

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*facepalm*
The Lib Dems may as well merge with the Tories.
At this rate you'll have America's health care..... my condolences.

The LibDems are a bigger joke than UKIP.

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Oh, Labour have pledged to repeal the bill should they win the next election, if it matters to anyone.

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Just looking at the new structure, you can tell this is a dumb idea.

It's more complicated than the NHS is now.

And slightly deviating from the subject, but i'm assuming we have PMQs before Gideon's budget statement tomorrow, right?

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Oh, Labour have pledged to repeal the bill should they win the next election, if it matters to anyone.

They also pledged to renationalize the railways if they won the 1997 election. Their promises aren't worth the paper they're written on, and I say that as a Labour member.

That's the most depressing thing. I wouldn't mind the Tories having their day out, privatising everything in sight etc if I thought it'd ever get reversed. I seen an interview yesterday where Miliband was asked about what he thought regarding the proposals for the roads, and he said "he'd have to look at the details", and didn't think it was the best thing for the moment whilst families are squeezed or some such, begging the question: are they to be simply opposed (in the most milquetoast fashion possible) under these bleak conditions?

There's more support for nationalising supermarkets than there is for privatising the NHS the last time I looked, and yet here we find ourselves.

Elective dictatorship. Public opinion only matters in a moral context when parliament is sovereign.

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You also have to wonder what the LibDems think they're doing, because there's really no way this could ever reflect well on them...

I'm not sure that the Lib Dems collectively think anything at the moment...

The Lib Dem leadership is, I think, doing this because most of them actually agree with what Lansley wanted to do.  They seem to have a bizarre desire to turn the Lib Dems into our very own FDP, which might suggest that they haven't looked at many German opinion polls recently.  (And I suspect most German FDP supporters would be Tories in the UK anyway.)

A large part of the Lib Dem rank and file is clearly opposed to the bill and has twice produced conference votes against it.  One thing this has exposed is that the Lib Dems' claim to have more democratic decision making processes than the other parties is dubious.

That leaves the parliamentarians.  Some of them will be in the leadership's camp anyway, but certainly not all of them, so the mystery for me is why the rebellions have been so small.  I suppose the likes of Farron and Hughes, who are supposedly standard bearers for the left, have positions which make it hard for them to rebel, but in that case they ought to have considered resigning them.

That Orange Book has murdered the Liberal Democrats. And you're right, most of them probably do want to be like FDP and probably do agree with the Conservatives - no one's physically dragged them down the Aye lobby, after all. That, or they just love their ministerial limos too much.

And if the Liberals actually are holding the Tories back like they say they are, i'd hate to imagine what a majority Tory government'd be like. Bloody hell.

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The (apparent) risk register's (apparently) been leaked:
http://origin.library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102665899193-912/Health-Bill-Transition-Risk-Register-NC-15-Oct-10-Dept-Bd-Version-v1.pdf

Probably the worst week this government's had so far, surely.

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I was amazed when my dad seemed optimistic about the coalition after the election. He lived through the Thatcher years and that's where the family hatred of the Tories began - yet he thought the Lib Dems would balance them out.

I honestly think they've given up all hope of survival by this point.

Anyone who looked at what Clegg and Cameron were like with eachother even during the campaign could see all this sucking up coming from a mile away. Why they never went for confidence-and-supply, i'll never know, but the Liberals will have their poorest result since '79 in 2015, probably even 1970 anyway.

They deserve it, whole-heartedly.

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I can see 2015 being a major realigning election.

Naturally.

Win or lose, the left will be united to an extent that it hasn't been since the gang of 4.

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I can see 2015 being a major realigning election.

Naturally.

Win or lose, the left will be united to an extent that it hasn't been since the gang of 4.

Hoping this will be another 1945!

A highly-respected incumbent against an underestimated underdog.

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I can see 2015 being a major realigning election.

Naturally.

Win or lose, the left will be united to an extent that it hasn't been since the gang of 4.

Hoping this will be another 1945!

A highly-respected incumbent against an underestimated underdog.

Well. Cameron isn't highly respected anymore. TEN POINT LEAD. I still can't believe how unbelievably incompetent the budget was.

Probably "over estimated" is a better choice of words.

This has been the worst week for the Tories in a long time. I just hope Labour don't lose this momentum, they've got a massive opportunity on their hands. There's been a change of narrative on the Tory's position, but not so much Labour's.

They need to take a "Are you better off than you were two years ago?" route, because it'd be difficult for many people to say yes to that question.