Editorial Wednesday 20 June 2012: Health Policy Intelligence 47: The Tao of Andrew Lansley

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Tao is (Wikipedia kindly informs me) the essential nature of the universe and being. Spiritual pursuit under the Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist faith involves the condition of acceptance and one-ness with the universe.

You already know that Health Policy Intelligence is the product of profound spirituality. To this end, we the faithful must seek to achieve one-ness with Andrew Lansley (saviour, liberator), who appears to have neatly palmed the first-out-of-the-Cabinet black spot off onto the wonderfully hapless Jeremy Hunt.

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A week is a long time in politics, as Harold Wilson memorably observed. The Budget omnishambles and post-budget omnishambles, together with the drip-drip-drip effect of Leveson (country supper, anyone? LOL), have had a fascinating effect on the landscape of the Cabinet.

Our Saviour And Liberator has gone from being short odds to be first out of the Cabinet to looking relatively safe. This is in part because the much-discussed strategic genius of George Osborne has been pretty comprehensively rumbled.

It is equally so because even if the Prime Minister were set on dispensing with Mr Lansley (and it would be odd timing, having passed on so many chances to give him a merciful release), these complex reforms (which still await many regulations) are not something that it’s easy to imagine handing over to many potential candidates.

It would have to be a Tory. Hunt is hunted; Gove is not being moved; ...