ABSTRACT
The succession of Gordon Brown to the premiership in June 2007 marked the beginning of a period of political and economic turbulence. Politically, his succession ended months of damaging speculation about when, and whether, Tony Blair would give way to his longstanding and increasingly impatient Crown Prince. Brown’s premiership therefore was a period of transition from political stability to political uncertainty, from an era of optimism about the economic future to one of anxiety. Brown’s reshuffle of the Government, on becoming Prime Minister, introduced a new ministerial team at the Department of Health. Alan Johnson, a shrewd and amiable politician with no obvious ideological axe to grind, replaced Patricia Hewitt as Secretary of State. Consumer choice was clearly popular across social classes, and may have had a role in changing the balance of power between patients and professionals, but its role in shaping the National Health Service was less than political rhetoric might suggest.
