Cutting the NHS to fund defence is bad politics and bad policy

[Northerner]

David Cameron and George Osborne have long rejected calls from figures such as Vince Cable and Liam Fox to end the protection of health spending in order to limit cuts elsewhere. But the NHS ring-fence is looking less secure today. Ahead of June's Spending Review, the Telegraph reports that Philip Hammond is in talks with the Treasury about transferring up to ?500m from the health and schools budgets to reduce the expected cuts to defence. The Defence Secretary, you'll recall, has previously publicly demanded that welfare is cut again to protect the MoD. But with the Lib Dems vetoing any further cuts to welfare (bar those to pensioner benefits, which David Cameron has pledged to protect), Hammond has been forced to look elsewhere.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/cutting-nhs-fund-defence-bad-politics-and-bad-policy