Morning, people. Hope you are all well and not too snow-bound.

I will be back later today with some proper stuff about markets, but just having signed a contract on some new freelance work, want to update you on that, in case you're interested in conflicts of interest.

Cabinet Office permanent secretary of government communications Matt Tee (former prelate of the DH communications parish; ex-of Dr Foster and the first chief executive of NHS Direct) will lead a major review of the Government Central Office of Information, prior to moving on to new challenges at the end of March 2011.

They will miss him, I suspect. He brought to the party a good strategic sense and proper common sense: a double less prevalent than one would wish.

With the launch today of the new NHS Atlas Of Variation, the Department of Health has done something brilliant.

Talent borrows, genius steals
It is not, of course, something original - simply a UK version of the famous US Dartmouth Atlas mapping variation in healthcare provision.

Which makes it even better. If we are learning how to steal good ideas, then there is almost certainly some kind of hope.

The chair of Monitor is going to be a serious power in the brave new world. They will be the economic dictators of the new system: setting tariff; doing anti-trust; promoting NHS competition; and having regard to quality.

The health select committee meets to hear evidence from Health Secretary Andrew Lansley (AL), NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson (DN) and DH director of finance Richard Douglas (RD).

(There are going to be a lot of typos in this) - and the corrected transcript is here.

Chair Stephen Dorrell (SD) wants brief questions and answers.

Good evening. As the temperature drops again, and autumn leaves carpet the gutters, a few things are becoming clearer through the November fog.

Some of this came from sources at the HSJ 100 launch last week; other material from the NHS Alliance conference. In the instances where I can't give a name, I'm not relying on a single source.

1. Health Secretary Lansley is known to be in trouble

Mark Britnell

Power in the new system – the power to integrate

Power can be used to fossilise relationships and indeed healthcare delivery in mid-20th century, or used to develop relationships in much more generous integrated way. It’s time to use power to integrate.

The finest characteristic of the NHS is the general practice registered list mapping 99.7% of population to a GP. Most countries in the world would pay for that.

Andrew Lansley sends his apologies that he can't be here, and his best wishes for your conference.

This government has two priorities above all others: to restore order to our public finances; and to ensure the health of our nation. Last month, Chancellor George Osborne's budget set out the plan to have debt falling by the end of this Parliament. We need to reduce public spending by £81 billion.

Professor Alan Maynard’s presentation for the NHS Alliance conference today explores the three main challenges confronting primary care in a ‘Liberated’ NHS

Some assert that primary care in the NHS is the “best in the world”. The evidence for this assertion is poor, with limited evidence of good practice accompanied by evidence of poor access and uneven delivery of services.

It is remarkable that primary care remains “data-lite”, with taxpayers paying for variable service quality for over 60 years.

Improving primary care

The 2010 NHS Alliance conference opened with a vigorous address from NHS Alliance chair Dr Michael Dixon, calling the primary care team to arms behind the vision of a primary care-led NHS, despite over a decade of false dawns.

Describing the “last gasps of secondary care-dominated system disconnected from front-line clinicians", Dixon implored delegates, “do not let this chance slip through your hands. if we fail the NHS, we'll be done for”.