Regular readers will remember that back in April 2011 the Government paused the development of its health policy and outsourced it to a group of people it brought together over a weekend. At about the same time number 10 let it be known that the Prime Minister had made a strategic error when he came into power eleven months earlier, in explaining how he as Prime Minister would lead the organisation of the Government.

Famously he had said that when he came into Government he intended to be the Chair of the Government and not its Chief Executive. He had thought that as Chair you could appoint competent Executive Directors and let them get on with the hard work. In this case he would chair the cabinet and his Cabinet ministers would get on with running the country.