Andrew Lansley In Quotes +Updated+

"Andrew Lansley could make himself a legacy greater than that of almost any other Health Secretary in history,"

Prof John Britton, September 1st 2012

Andrew Lansley has been replaced as Health Secretary by Jeremy Hunt as part of an extensive government reshuffle.

BBC News, September 4th 2012

Does 3 days count as a 'legacy'?

"We don't want to work in partnership with Andrew Lansley because we are trying to arrive at a point where he has no business in this country."

Dick and the Jewel Robbers, September 4th 2012

So then, Mr Hunt, are your balls big enough, and located where they're supposed to be, to tackle the unelected, unaccountable, self-administering prohibitionist civil servants at the Department of Health? Or are you going to juggle them on your chin like Lansley has been doing in the past year?

We're all ears.

UPDATE: Guido reports that Paul Burstow has also been kicked out of the Department of Health in favour of Norman Lamb.

So we have gone from this attitude:

Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, said:

"This is further evidence that passive smoking kills. Ministers should introduce a ban on smoking in enclosed public places to protect people working in bars and restaurants from the effects of second hand smoke. This was recommended by their own chief medical officer last year. A ban should be on a national basis and not a piecemeal ban which only takes in certain parts of the country."

Health minister Paul Burstow said: "The health and economic benefits of stopping tobacco displays far outweigh the costs of covering displays.

"But we know there is no single answer to cutting smoking rates. That is why we will soon be consulting on plain packaging of cigarettes and whether this could be an effective way to reduce smoking take-up."

To this one:

Shops will be ordered to keep cigarettes 'under the counter' in an attempt to cut smoking rates among children.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Norman Lamb said: 'This is the nanny state going too far.'

Hmmm, encouraging.

The Latest Threat To Public Health - Freedom And Responsibility

Only a newspaper in the Guardian stable could possibly come out with an editorial - an editorial, no less, not some CiF fruitcake-scribbled psychobabble - which can send a chill down the spine of the free-thinking, while simultaneously exhibiting elements of profoundly subtle satire.

How else does one describe a paragraph such as this?

Barely 10 weeks into office, the coalition seems to have made it a priority to dismantle key elements of what most doctors thought was a settled consensus on key public health measures. Labour's use of intervention, exhortation and regulation has now been junked in favour of a reliance on individual freedom, personal responsibility and industry behaving itself.

And this is a bad thing?

By 'settled consensus', they presumably mean a circular jerk of doctors deciding how best to issue orders to those who pay their wages. All to produce a society where intervention and regulation are considered utopian goals, and - this concept truly baffles me - where individual freedom and personal responsibility are evil qualities which should be eradicated.

Oh, believe me, there's more where that came from. Straw men, absurd comparisons, opinions held up as fact, juvenile hyperbole, you name it.

It's like Orwell never existed.

What Dreams May Come

Looks like yesterday was a bad day for business if you're a self-righteous mockney twat.

The Jamie Oliver-approach will not work in tackling public health problems like obesity and smoking, the health secretary says.

Mr Lansley said people needed to take responsibility for their own health.

"If we are constantly lecturing people and trying to tell them what to do, we will actually find that we undermine and are counterproductive in the results that we achieve,".

{insert short sound file of the Hallelujah Chorus here}

I never thought I'd be jealous of a minister (even though I held such a position in a dream sequence once), but those who know my views on 'jerk off' Jamie will be unsurprised to know that I'd have given my 1980s 7" vinyl picture disc collection to have been able to deliver that withering dismissal of his methods. And to the comrades of the BMA, too.

The self-appointed saviour of our nation isn't too happy with his relegation to background noise, of course.

"I'm not encouraged by the news that the new health minister has summed up 8 years of hard work in a few lines for the sake of a headline," said Mr Oliver.

Retorts the person whose 'hard work' for the last 8 years has consisted of making headlines for the sake of selling more books.

Coming to his defence was our old friend, Alan 'Libertarian by nature' Maryon-Davies.

"Of course, we could probably do a little less nagging, but you still need to nudge people."

Keep plugging with those libertarian ideals, eh Al? Oh yeah, and perhaps buy a dictionary?

Despite previous reservations, this is all very promising from Mr Lansley, who only the day before engaged with our forthright blog mascot on the same area of policy.

Philip Davies: "May I urge the Secretary of State to get NICE to go back to what most people think it is for, which is to monitor the cost-effectiveness and clinical effectiveness of drugs? Many people do not think that it does a particularly good job on that, anyway, but it is currently indulged in empire building, with its ridiculous drivel in recent weeks on smoking breath tests for pregnant women, compulsory sex education for five-year-olds and subsidies for food companies to make healthier food. Surely it ought to go back to what it should be doing, and doing it better, rather than empire building, as it is doing."

Andrew Lansley: "In 2005 the previous Government charged NICE with producing public health guidance as part of its work. As I establish a more integrated and effective public health service, I shall consider how the advice of NICE fits into that strategic framework."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement there, I thought. More like a 'not us, Guv' and a vague implication that the current arrangements may change. In light of Lansley's speech today, perhaps the change might not be favourable to NICE ... which would be a bloody good thing.

Now, encouraging as this all appears, the Puddlecote mistrust of politicians runs rather deep so enthusiasm/ire will remain on ice until such time as hopes of a change in the dictatorial state attitude are fulfilled/dashed.

But the still small squeal of Jamie Oliver is a delightful taster of what could follow if Lansley gets heavy on the collective righteous ass. I was therefore, last night, mostly dreaming of an upcoming indignant cacophony.

Mmmmmm.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe ...

Iain Dale is pretty certain about upcoming cabinet positions.

First Cabinet Posts Announced

HEALTH: Andrew Lansley

Yes, the same Andrew Lansley who dismissed Conservative Home's poll which suggested an amendment to the smoking ban was favourable to a majority of conservatives, let alone the rest of us.

My understanding, however, is that Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley - a great believer in public health - does not want to return to the issue.

Yes, the same Lansley who (whether you enjoy tobacco or not) wants to make 'help' you give up in more inventive ways.

Mr Lansley said that, under the pharmacy contract, it was intended that pharmacists would help smokers who have not been targeted by their GPs, and stressed the importance of using the sector more in the provision of NHS smoking cessation services.

Indeed, the same Andrew Lansley who was recently paid £114 per day by the pharmaceutical industry until Private Eye highlighted it.

Meanwhile in a double whammy, someone who used to be paid by big tobacco, Ken Clarke, is shoved out.

Come on now! You didn't really think anything was seriously going to change, did you?

Meet the new boss, same as ... well, you get the idea.

(Best start a new tag for Lansley as I think I'm going to need it ... oh yeah, and 'Change? What change?' too)