In the last few months, during the political tussle that took place before the final passage of what is now the Health and Social Care Act, some very strange claims were made about the power of various Royal Colleges to reverse government policy.

There was a strong belief amongst medical opponents of the Bill that if all the Royal Colleges called for its withdrawal this would have stopped the Bill. I commented at the time that this was an odd view of political power, but was understandable coming from people who were rarely involved in the politics of legislation.