“Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall; And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.”
If politicians come to believe that the civil service is preoccupied with speaking truth to power at the expense of doing its job, Francis Maude-type solutions will be imposed, regardless of which party is in power.
Or has PMQs become, like those wrestling bouts shown on the telly, a bit of a put-up job?