Matt Hancock launched Public Health England’s successor organisation today – the National Institute for Health Protection. Unlike PHE, the new organisation will not have any distractions around nannying ‘health improvement’. A tacit admission that PHE spent too much time devising tax hikes on sugar and booze, and not enough on pandemic preparedness. Hancock announced that instead the only job of the NIHP will be to “focus focus focus” on external threats, such as pandemics…

The bad news is instead a nannying culture will now be “embedded right across government… and in the work of every single local authority“. Hancock will be announcing new plans to spread the worst instincts of PHE into every nook and cranny of government and the health system over the coming weeks. In a hammer blow to those who like freedom, Hancock announced that “We will use this moment to consult widely on how we can embed health improvement more deeply across the board.” Be afraid. Be very afraid…