Daniel:

Did you notice that Dr. Ron Paul moved up to fourth place in the Michigan GOP primary? He got double the percentage of the vote than Frum's Guiliani with much less media coverage. Go figure...

Please keep criticizing the guy... It can only help.

Robert Miller, Halifax, NS, CANADA

I presently receive a regular prescription to treat my elevated blood pressure and cholesterol. Because I'm a pensioner, the drugs are issued free on the NHS and in addition, I buy for myself aspirin and cod liver oil which are recommended enhancements to my regime.
Can I now look forward to a multipage missive from some idiot administrator telling me that my NHS treatment is to be terminated??! And also that any consequent (and near certain) hospitalisation for stroke or heart attack must be privately funded?

Keith Loxley, Aylesbury, UK

Unfortunately UK governments of both persuasions think governing means micro-managing and telling us what to do - they are too easily able to suppress the population which is not used to having any direct say in anything.

It's not perfect but under the US constitution the government has from its outset had far less power and interference in people's lives and lets them get on with it, also the population can raise and vote on specific issues which we are not allowed to.

If only the UK realised that the democratic powers are so weak here for the individual and we are very institutionalised here in a socialist way (socialist with small "s") with the most centralised government in the western world.

I'm for less government, london,

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, in Labour, right! well labour are all loony control freaks, I thought every one knew that ,so if he says you cannot have one lot of drugs from the NHS and one from a private source then that's how it is. Simple really and no need for an explanation. Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, is Labour, right?

D Case, Newquay,

If it is not considered OK to 'mix' private and NHS treatment, then surely, in consequence, private patients should not be allowed NHS beds or have emergency treatment on the nhs, when things go wrong?

Nicki, Southampton, HAMPSHIRE

So Mr Grundy likes to see 'rich' people die. But that's socialism for you. It doesn't matter that there's a treatment that could save your life, if you earned more than Mr Grundy in your lifetime you deserve to die. Nice.

mark mcfarland, dubai, uae

Robert Grunday's comment is like saying that because I pay for music lessons for my kids they should be thrown out of their state school.

Allowing these women to pay for Avastin while receiving the rest of the car they are entitled to on the NHS is not denying anyone else anything.

KC, Oxford,

It's high time that socialist poiticians stopped regarding unequal ability or desire to make the most of opportunity as a condition that can be corrected by an act of political will.
Get real in your lofty, leftie ivory towers. It's a National Insurance scheme. That means the insurance company (i.e. the government) will pay an amount towards treatment to recover health. If the insured (patient) chooses to have something added to the basics being paid for then that is, or should be, allowed. Every insurance scheme in the world works that way and has no problem at all with the provisioning/billing involved. Why not this one? Unless, of course, the issue is political control instead of a genuine desire to help out.

KR, Stockport,

Should cancer patients suffer equally, have equal survival rates? Should ideologues be allowed to stuff their half-baked 'principles' down other people's throats in the guise of policy? The answer to both questions is clearly yes, according to Mr. Johnson, of whose intelligence I am not so confident as Daniel Finkelstein. Now, what if Mr. Johnson or a member of his close family developed cancer and could obtain benefit from a drug such as Avastin. Would his ideology survive the challenge? Or would he find reasons to claim that he and his family were not the same case at all and therefore not subject to the rigour of the rules? I hope we never find out but, looking around, we see everywhere examples of blatant hypocrisy by our law-makers, whose apparent high-mindedness so often gives way to craven self-interest. Trust in government? They surely jest. Sooty might do a better job.

anne, bournemouth,

Spot on Mr Finkelstein.

Robert Grundy`s comments, like Johnston`s ruling only show
how true Churchill`s comparison of capitalism and socialism
was. "Inequality in the sharing of reward was capitalism`s only
vice. Equality in sharing of misery was socialism`s only virtue.

Denver Watt, Osaka,

So a person equally in need of Avastin but who can't afford it should suffer because she is market 'loser' - unable to earn a decent income or not having inherited wealth! Obviously as a lesser breed in economic terms she should be allowed to wither. Social Darwinism? Or Marie Antionette remixed - they'll have bread anyway so why complain if someone else has cake on top of that too! No matey, you either opt in or you opt out. And if you go private it will release money for other patients to receive much needed care. In any case we all have to die - lets just hope it is not a painful death. Your arguments about plastic bags is poor. While not a sufficient condition, fewer non-decomposable plastic bags must be a necessary condition for a more sustainable future. Since the link between school success/ earnings is broken - it will always fail. Paul Owen is however right about politicians being more equal than others and hypocritical about it.

Robert Grundy, London,

How right you are. This notion of equality is what has ruined our schools too. We are lucky that politicians have been unable thus far to interfere too much in the universities or else they would go the same way.

Equality. It tends to be something beloved of politicians until they are involved themselves. Tony Blair finding good schools for his kids. Diane Abbot educating her son privately. Oh and a more recent example: why aren't politicians who break rules treated the same as citizens who break rules? Is Peter Hain more equal than I am? It would seem so.

Paul Owen, Birmingham, Uk