The Health Service Bill
Parliament, reassembling on Tuesday after its short recess, will devote itself forthwith, for three days, to the second reading of the National Health Service Bill. • The fate of the measure, with the Government's vast majority behind it, can of course not be in doubt, but Mr. Aneurin Bevan's introduction of the Bill may affect materially both his own reputation and the prospects of a relatively harmonious agreement. He has the opportunity of dispelling a number of baseless assertions as to what the Bill does and does not involve, and an equally valuable opportunity of indicating that he is quite prepared to consider reasonable amendments which leave the basic principles of the measure untouched. Amendment in various respects is needed—particularly regarding the proposed treatment of the voluntary hospitals. For the rejection of the measure there is no case at all, and the Conservative Party, with the White Paper drawn up by a Conservative Minister of Health on record, seem singularly ill-advised in proposing it.
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