In 2010, weeks after the election, the Coalition government started to dismantle the National Health Service, in an ideological assault disguised as austerity. Since its foundation in 1946, the NHS has been at the center of the welfare state, but now it lies in tatters, the result of costcutting and exposure to the free market in the false pursuit of efficiencies and savings. Allyson M. Pollock, one of the nation s leading public health specialists, exposes the truth behind the botched policies and underhand politics and makes a passionate defence of a health service for all."