Even as NHS crises come around like comets, the ritual is the same each time. Producer interests want more money. Ministers want structural reform. The difference is split and the NHS creaks arthritically on. (The third option, of rationing some services, namely the expensive treatment of people with not long to live, is too dark to entertain.) If anything feels different this time, it is the momentum behind the idea of a dedicated NHS tax. Mrs May was asked about it in a television interview on Sunday. She was doubtful but some Conservatives, such as the former cabinet member Oliver Letwin, like the idea. Other admirers include the LSE professor Richard Layard, who sits as a Labour peer in the House of Lords, and Nicholas Macpherson, once permanent secretary of the sceptical Treasury.

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