In his introduction to his interim report on the future of the NHS, surgeon Ara Darzi claims that he is a ‘doctor not a politician’.1 Although Lord Darzi has only recently joined the government, his report confirms how rapidly he has learned Labour's cynical doublespeak. The report's bullet point sentences provide the familiar rhetorical cover for the centralised command and control policies through which the government has sought to impose what it regards as ‘populist’ reforms in the NHS. Proclaiming its commitment to be ‘ambitious’ in raising the ‘quality of care’, the report insists that the NHS must ‘respond to the aspirations of patients and the public for a more personalised service by challenging and empowering NHS staff and others locally’. As Neville Goodman memorably observed in his critique …