Labour leader Ed Miliband has accused the Government of "putting ideology before people" as it embarks on a massive shake-up of the NHS.
The public anger which forced David Cameron to ditch plans to sell off the forests last week will be "as nothing" compared to the fury unleashed as the consequences of his plans for the health service become clear, he said.
In a speech to Labour's Welsh conference in Llandudno, Mr Miliband said that after just nine months in power, the coalition Government already had "a record to be truly ashamed of", raising unemployment, slowing growth and destroying valued public amenities like libraries and children's centres.
Ridiculing Chancellor George Osborne's claim that the return to negative GDP growth at the end of 2010 was down to unusually heavy snowfall, he said: "What a feeble abdication of responsibility.
"The economic recovery hasn't been hit by the wrong kind of snow. It is being undermined by the wrong kind of government with the wrong kind of priorities."
On the NHS, just as on libraries, SureStart centres and forests, ministers are trying to push through ideologically-driven policies and without consultation and are losing public support as a result, Mr Miliband told Labour activists.
"David Cameron might think he is building the Big Society - but it's not in support of his policies, but against them," he said.
Thursday's U-turn - which saw Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman apologise for the forest privatisation plans dumped after massive protests - was symptomatic of a government out of touch with the public.
"Why did they get themselves into the mess? Because these people are totally out of touch with what the British people value," Mr Miliband said.
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"Forests are just one example of what happens when a Government and a Prime Minister that don't understand what matters to people, don't listen to them and so carelessly destroy the institutions that people value."
