by RAY FLEMING
I should have known better! In this space on Friday I praised David Cameron for so quickly disowning the criticism his MEP Daniel Hannan had made in America of the National Health Service and I chided Labour's health minister Andy Burnham for questioning Mr Cameron's commitment to NHS as a number one priority for a Conservative government. Although Mr Cameron has not in any way gone back on his own strong statement of support for the NHS it became apparent over the weekend that not everyone in his shadow cabinet shares his view. At least three shadow ministers have surfaced as co-authors of a publication by Mr Hannan in which he calls for a fundamental reform of the NHS. The shadow ministers are Michael Gove, who is said to be close to his leader, and Greg Clark and Jeremy Hunt (no, I hadn't heard of them either).
No doubt this little difficulty will blow over but it does illustrate a point that is increasingly being made of Mr Cameron's leadership. It is that with an election now less than one year ago he needs to nail down all his key policy objectives so that disagreement about them does not keep emerging from MPs and others who haven't been kept fully in the picture.
Given David Cameron's unequivocal backing for more money and support for the NHS it surely should be impossible for any other opinion to be heard in the Conservative Party?