The first high profile causalty of the NHS online recruitment fiasco

The first high profile casualty of the NHS online recruitment fiasco has hit.  The chairman of the British Medical Association, James Johnson, has resigned after he was accused of being too close to the Government on the issue.  Mr Johnson, speaking to the Guardian, said "-I appear to have lost the confidence of my council largely over a letter ... expressing some support for the chief medical officer, who is being blamed for what has happened. He isn't entitled to answer back or apologise for his ministers' policies-."  All this, yet no-one in government is going to do the honourable thing.  Brown, no doubt, will move Hewitt out of the cabinet when he takes over properly in a few weeks, but the damage of a futile project has been done.  And as Michael Portillo said yesterday in his article, this is as much to do with her being a Blairite as an incompetent minister (hence Yvette Cooper will get a promotion despite the HIPs fiasco).  The BMA have lost their chairman and 30,000 doctors will still need a job, no-one is a winner out of this one.  You can not help feel that if the Government were never left in charge of this in the first place we would not be in this mess now...