Heroes of the week have to be that brave band of relatives of the 'victims' of the Mid Staffs scandal, who are metaphorically camped outside the Department of Health waiting for someone to take responsibility for the disaster. They have the knives out for NHS commissioning boss Sir David Nicholson, and the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, Dr Peter Carter. Both are sitting fast and vowing to ride out the storm.
Carter is in the dock for allegedly failing to support whistleblowers, despite the best efforts of experts from all areas of the legal fraternity to encourage a system of protecting those who raise the alarm. Sir David apparently has the confidence of the other Dave, so watch this space.
The health service union Unite does not share Dave's confidence: it has joined the chorus calling for his resignation.
The union's national officer for health Rachael Maskell said: "A complete overhaul of dysfunctional management in the NHS needs to happen as a matter of urgency and the first person out the door should be Sir David Nicolson, chief executive of the NHS Commissioning Board – perhaps, the most powerful person in the coalition's new NHS.
"The words 'buck', 'stopping' and 'here' have a certain resonance. The recommendations of the Francis Report make his position untenable."
Perhaps the most damning quote was from relative and campaigner Julie Bailey. She told ITV's Daybreak programme: "You only had to open a ward door at the hospital to smell the stench of urine, hear patients screaming in pain and see staff being bullied, and know that the care was appalling. But the people in charge chose not to do that."
Among all the recommendations and revelations, the one thing the report's author Robert Francis QC doesn't do is recommend that anybody should pay a price for the deaths of up to 1,000 people. That possibly shows a generosity that many do not share.
• The issue was debated at length on the BBC Question Time programme, including by former Labour Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer. His Lordship also admitted to having been banned from driving for speeding. It was in response to the question as to whether Chris Huhne is 'a danger to society', having been threatened with prison for his misdeeds. Of course Mr Huhne is not a danger to society retorted Lord Falconer, but he is reaping the whirlwind of lying to the beak.
"If you try and mess with this process, we will be really hard on you," said His Lordship.
You would expect a lawyer like Lord Falconer to accept without question the idea that courts should come down harder for trying it on than for the actual crime; what was more surprising was that the members of the panel who are not lawyers should agree.
The principle has been in the public eye for over a century – ever since, in fact, Mr Toad was sent down for his rampage in a motor car (being single, he couldn't get his wife to take the rap). The bulk of his sentence, of course, was for cheeking the police (And quite right, too!).
Well, the courts are nothing if not consistent.
Chris Stokes