From our kind friends on the news desk comes the following intriguing tale of a Conservative MP who seems to have developed the power of second sight.

First minister ofWales, Labour’s Rhodri Morgan launched a stinging attack against a Conservative assembly member for his “farcical” and “lunatic” attempt to discredit the Welsh free prescription initiative.

Mr Morgan slammed Darren Millar after the assembly member issued a statement claiming the fact that there were 112,000 more people registered with GPs inWalesthan live in the country was: “clear evidence… that free prescriptions are luring people from outsideWalesto register with Welsh GPs”.

Mr Millar was citing figures from 2006, the year before free prescriptions were introduced inWalesand the most current set of official population statistics. Mr Morgan accused Millar of making a “farcical point” and said: “You have got your official frontbench spokesman to support you, even though it is a lunatic press release.”

HSJnews hounds compared figures supplied by the Welsh Assembly Government for the number of patients registered in England and Wales in 2007 – the year when free prescriptions were introduced – to projected population figures as actual figures are not yet available.The number of people registered to Welsh GPs was 3.9 per cent higher than the projected population figure, whereas inEngland, where prescriptions are paid for, the figure was 4.9 per cent higher.