When Kenneth Clarke was Health Secretary he was more concerned to scorn striking ambulance crews as 'taxi drivers' than to settle a dispute which put many lives at risk. This made not a few people hope that one day he would himself need the kind of emergency attention which ambulance crews provide every working day. His imposition of budgets on GPs met with opposition from the doctors, who Clarke dismissed as motivated by their wallets before the needs of their patients. These budgets are now suspected of discouraging some GPs from spending money on treating their more elderly patients - perhaps because worn out workers are not economically fruitful to keep alive. To repeat. These people run the country. Why do the words 'orhanise' and 'brewery' come to mind?