Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the strategic health authority, which oversees NHS standards regionally, had had the "wool pulled over its eyes".
Wearing a black wool cap pulled down against the biting chill of a Chicago winter morning, Vallas bounds up to the doors of tenements on the city's gritty South Side.
Up to 12 colors of bright merino wool yarn are pulled from cones dangling from the ceiling into the teal-colored machines' high-speed knitting needles.
Just as Activision and EA ride the wave of positive buzz from the unveiling of Battlefield 3 at GDC and Modern Warfare 3 at pre-E3, these companies must contend with these same passionate fans when they believe the wool is being pulled over their eyes.