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In your article (Clegg and Cameron agree key changes on NHS plans, 9 May), there is nothing to suggest that Clegg and Cameron have agreed substantive changes to the NHS bill going through parliament. There may be some slackening in the pace of change and, for the present, GPs may not be forced to participate in the scheme, but the ultimate aim remains privatisation of the health service. Of that there should be no doubt. Members of the Conservative party may be in favour of privatising the NHS – despite the evidence from the US that this does not work – but members of the Lib Dems have made their objections to the bill very clear, and their MPs are under an obligation to reflect these views. If the bill is passed, there will be no going back.
John Baxter
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
• Nick Clegg and his Lib Dem ministerial colleagues must be dangerously naive if they think that a quick volte-face, with the imprimatur of Clegg's "personal" authority, on the key ingredients of the health bill, is going to wash with their outraged foot soldiers. As for the wider population, it is yet another example of how out of touch with ordinary people's sensibilities politicians become when they get a taste of power and seek to cling on to it at all costs. As we know, Clegg gave his personal endorsement to the proposals originally. It is sadly comical now to see him posturing as their critic.
Gillian Dalley
London
• So will the government now abandon the two-month pause and consultation with frontline health professionals, lauded recently as the way forward? Or is this yet another sham consultation and another nail in the coffin for policy based on evidence?
Tony Winters
Stourbridge, Staffordshire
• In the aftermath of last Thursday's election results (Comment, 7 May), given that first-past-the-post determines the winner and Nick Clegg remains nominal Lib Dem leader, the only question worth asking is which of the pair, Clegg or Cameron, will win the race to break their yoke?
Lib Dems who prop up a Conservative-led government for five years are in no way different, and thus not worth voting for. Cameron, on the other hand, has everything to gain by ditching his yoke fellow at a time, and on an issue, of his own choosing. His campaign in the referendum shows he is well capable of deceit. The only hope for Clegg is to break loose first; the only hope for his party is that the break is on an issue where they have public opinion already on their side. The obvious issue is the NHS, as there already is a mass audience in favour of much of what Clegg and the Lib Dems want to achieve.
Paul Anderton
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire
• I was alarmed to read the recommendation in the Royal College of General Practitioners' letter to the prime minister – "We would be keen for the government to explore how legislation could be amended so that the NHS could become the preferred provider of services."
Given that Marie Curie Cancer Care currently provides care to over 50% of all cancer patients dying at home, and a growing number of patients with other terminal illnesses, such a move would put our services and many others in the field of end-of-life care at risk. The current provision of end-of-life care services, in partnership with the NHS, is a perfect example of how the "big society" could work, and this recommendation would seem to threaten that.
Thomas Hughes-Hallett
Chief executive, Marie Curie Cancer Care
• So Nick Clegg has promised not to support the NHS reforms unless he agrees with them. I guess that's some sort of progress.
Andrew Graystone
Manchester
• Health reforms may wreck the NHS, doctors leaders warn Cameron (Report, 9 May). Surely that is the purpose, a long-held ambition of the Tory right, now thought achievable with Lib Dem cover.
AAE Taylor
Manchester