Rather, in the absence of any clear explanation of how the changes were supposed to benefit patients, people fell back on their assumptions about Tory motivations.
The traditional view of Lib Dems had been that "Labour was the opposition and the Tories were the enemy… So the starting assumption was that the Tories were a bunch of bastards".
"It isn't an impartial exercise but a political smear based on false assumptions made by Tory advisers, including dozens of claims which are not even Labour's policies," he said.
Predicting how people are going to vote was a mug's game in 1945, when amid widespread assumptions of a Tory victory Attlee's Labour Party romped home with nearly 400 seats (although it should be noted that some primitive early polls gave Labour an eight-point lead).
Balls is also likely to challenge the Lib Dems to explain why their senior figures have condemned Tory plans when the underlying spending assumptions were signed off by four senior ministers including Nick Clegg and the Treasury chief secretary, Danny Alexander.
As Tories used to start with the assumption that the country went to the dogs when Albert Pierrepoint turned in his rope, isn't it an advance to appoint someone who knows about prisons, literally from the inside?
These funding cuts being driven through by the Tories start from a totally incorrect assumption: that education only benefits the individual, and therefore the individual should bear the cost.
The standard assumption is that the City prefers the Tories; certainly the return from equities since Labour took office in May 1997 has been pretty pathetic.
In the light of today's poll - which, depending on assumptions made, could produce a small overall Tory majority - that talk suddenly (though perhaps briefly) seems prematurely cocky.
Mr Healey, a close ally of Gordon Brown, challenged the assumption behind housing policy under both the Tories and Labour since Margaret Thatcher introduced legislation to allow council tenants to buy their homes 30 years ago this month.
