A great post over at the Adam Smith Institute blog this morning shows how state control of healthcare is manifested in in the Department of Health's quangos. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) have put themselves about recently, saying - shock, horror - that unhealthy food is bad for you, among other things.
Isn't it funny that when budgets are tight, quangos step up their activity? They want the country to know just how important they are, so that their budget is protected when savings are searched for. This almost ubiquitous presence in the media recently shows the effects of having such a monopolistic healthcare provider as the NHS - and it helps when your budget is protected. Encouraging more competition will help curb the nannying tendencies of quangos such as NICE. It breeds choice - something which NICE clearly doesn't support judging by its recommendations.