He was a fool.  Mesmerised by his own rightness, annealed to criticism and blind to common-sense. Enthral to the markets and the allure of entrepreneurs.

This man was na�ve. This man has made the Tories unelectable, untrustworthy and shmendrik. He will go down in history as the second worst secretary of state for health. Losing by a narrow margin to Patricia Hewitt.

A man who spent years learning about the NHS but never got to know it. A man who lived in a windowless world that he could not describe and we could not see into.

A man, who when younger, suffered a stroke and was poorly cared for; an experience that left him scarred with a grudge that distorted his view of an NHS that, by the time he could wreak his revenge, had improved beyond all recognition.

A man who said the NHS had to change because outcomes were poor - experts told us they were not. A man who said management costs were too high.  Academics told us they were not. A man who said the public wanted better; the polls told us they loved what they had.

A man who was a fool or a liar? We will never know. A man whose licentious view of the NHS was unchallenged by the very people who knew him to be wrong and had the power to act together but failed. A man who had more courage than his critics.

The NHS stands on the edge of bankruptcy and terminal confusion; taking refuge in the very bureaucracy it seeks to shed.  We and the public are well rid of this man but his legacy will live with our families, the old, the sick and the poor for a generation.  Thank God he's gone.