Professor Alan Maynard considers the chaos, confusion and celerity surrounding the development and assurance of GP commissioning consortia.

As yet there is little enlightenment about how entry into GP consortia status will be achieved and what the powers will be given to the gatekeeper. This after one bland White Paper; a fistful of consultation documents; and much punditry from academe and think-tanks

You probably know that we've been big fans of the White Paper here.

And you may remember that last week, we reported on the emerging division among primary care leaders over the White Paper's chances of success. Monday's NHS Confederation policy salon also threw up a range of potential issues.

The report in The Guardian that the DH has started to shed public health staff is of course an entrant in the Holy Order of Things That Are Not Surprising.

The likely 1,500 redundancies that will ensure are jobs associated with 'programme funding' – budgets to fund particular areas of work which the government has decided to abolish by March 2011. In context, the article suggests that the DH currently employs 4,286 people.

You know the old gag about the masochist and the sadist. Yes, you do.

'Beat me', begs the masochist. 'No', replies the sadist.

And you remember Tony 'Jazz Hands' Blair's masochism strategy - he would stay in TV studios for ages, trying to argue opponents of the Iraq invasion round to see his point of view. The Catholic sacrament of confession, maybe? Catholics do the oddest things. Ask Opus Dei.

The inaugural NHS Confederation policy salon of the new season took its cue from Glenn Hoddle’s mantra “I’ve never made predictions and I never will”, seeking to discern how things will look in 2013. What will liberation look like?

General context-setting suggested that while the White Paper has adequately mapped the anatomy of the new system, its physiology remains an unknown. Potential conflicts appear on considering various implicit assumptions which underpin the thinking behind the White Paper.

Tonight's BBC Panorama investigation, in collaboration with the Bureau For Investigative Journalism, has revealed that people who work in the public sector can earn more than the Prime Minister.

This is not a surprise to seasoned watchers of the public sector. Nor indeed to readers of the Daily Mail.

Rather, it is an illuminated Psalm in the Book Of Things That Are Not Surprising.

Good morning. Welcome to another week of health policy mayhem.

Cuts in public services – what the state does nationally and locally – have a win-lose-lose effect.

The Treasury wins, as it always will in the end.

The people who receive the service lose, obviously - very few public services are created which benefit no member of the public, however indirectly.

And the providers of the service, be they public, not-for-profit or private sector (and of services to the service – mainly private) lose – be it their job, contract or business.

Professor Matthew Swindells, health chair of the British Computer Society, former DH chief information officer and soon to start work with Cerner, assesses the context and consequences of the latest news on NHS Connecting For Health

Today's Observer depicts a bleak-looking future for Jamie Oliver's Ministry Of Food project in Rotherham.

You may remember the Channel 4 'Ministry Of Food' TV series: Oliver's ongoing efforts to bring about local philanthropic social reform (no, I'm not taking the mick here) tried to bring a culture of cooking to a deprived region via the 'pass it on' approach.

Good evening.

You may have already seen the new instalment of Maynard Doctrine, in which the good Professor points to the pointlessness of NHS reorganisations. This piece may have been prompted in part by Professor Chris Ham’s musings for the BMJ that the White Paper reforms may not even be enacted as planned.

Interesting times.