David Cameron launched today what he called a “power shift” from Whitehall to individuals and local communities. Behind the 30 to 40 page Business Plans announced by each department lies an attempt to answer a perennial question: how to push through, and sustain, a programme of reform?

The huge swing in favour of the Republicans, and against the Democrats, since Barack Obama’s victory two years ago has been portrayed not only as a stunning rebuff to the President and an expression of widespread fears over the fragile state of the American economy but also as a revolt against the Washington establishment....

The coalition has, so far, worked much better than anyone could have predicted before May — thanks obviously to the harmonious lead of David Cameron and Nick Clegg but also to the initial work by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat negotiators and by Sir Gus O’Donnell and his team in the Cabinet Office.

IPSA has had the most controversial first few months of any public body since, say, the Child Support Agency. So Sir Ian Kennedy, its chairman, was inevitably on the defensive when he spoke at the Institute for Government about IPSA’s record and prospects.

Michael Heseltine famously entitled his report on the regeneration of the inner cities, “it took a riot”, after the week long disturbances in Liverpool in 1981. Similarly, Vanessa Nicholls could have called her report on the running of the House of Commons, “it took a scandal”.