Origins of the NHS

I write regarding the letter about the Conservative party and the NHS in August’s issue. What your correspondent, Mr Topps, has failed to take into account is that Labour were sat in power in a coalition with the Conservatives right through the war years, and the ideas came from Bevan, Beveridge [a Liberal] and Attlee – not from the Conservatives. When Churchill lost the election, he and all the other senior Conservative ministers did all they could to squash “the cradle to grave” scheme before it could get off the ground. Roger Morris, Cardiff