Political website The Slog, run by a chap called John Ward, warns that while Britain passes around electronic scraps of paper listing unsubstantiated rumours, health secretary Jeremy Hunt really is up to no good.

Ward reports that "an informal but extremely powerful working group has been set up by the coalition - separate from both NHS management and the Department for Health - to assess the best way to facilitate the handover of NHS hospital trusts to the private sector".

Ward points out that a total of 34 NHS organisations, almost one in 12 hospitals, is currently vulnerable because of money problems. He accuses the left of preferring "futile demonstrations, sound bites and slogan-yelling" to seeking "a more modern, better-funded and cost-free NHS". I wish I could say I think he's wrong.