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Pantomime villain of the year – as voted by you

 



Health secretary Andrew Lansley is a Marmite politician, and the results of our online poll suggest there are plenty of GPs who are not fans of yeast-extract spread.

Mr Lansley ran out a clear winner in the pantomime villain poll, not so much because he is abrasive or negative about general practice, but because he has been so wildly and unrelentingly enthusiastic about the abilities of GPs that he has scared the profession witless.

The man who promised ‘no top-down reorganisations' was announcing the most sweeping changes in the history of the NHS within five minutes of getting his pass to Richmond House.

Handing 80% of the NHS commissioning budget to GPs? Check. Scrapping PCTs and SHAs? Check. Lighting a bonfire of NHS quangos and stripping NICE of its role in rationing? Triple check with tartan shorts.

Every true villain ought to have a side-kick, and our vote handed that honour to Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, and a man who obviously had a very bad experience with a GP as a child. An honourable mention too for Lord Darzi, who came third in our poll, beating some quite notable villains, despite having had nothing to do with general practice all year.

Andrew Lansley