As his options narrow, Sunak has little choice but to get back to first principles, which would be the right course anyway.
Despite parliamentary criticism and repeated commitments to improve, key data about arms-length bodies has not been published since 2021.
Conservatives have to recognise that much of this failure arises from our failure to tackle government by quango and New Labour’s political settlement.
Perhaps it is time to start to learn to love quangos; perhaps with greater democratic control, such a romance would be possible.
If one simple student society can’t avoid the metastasiation of unelected office holders, what hope has a government?
We estimate that streamlining the quango state could mean nearly 34,000 people off the taxpayer payroll, and a saving of £3.25 billion a year.
After the election, we suggested five ways of securing the Party’s electoral position. Eight months on, how is the Government doing?
Over the past three years, we have seen large chunks of our bureaucracy – civil servants, quangocrats and other officials – working to frustrate the referendum result.
The Conservatives are not going to win the hearts and minds of the British people by proposing Labour-lite policies. There must be something different on offer.
With a limited number of exceptions such as Euratom, we need to take back control of regulation from continent-wide agencies with which we are a poor fit.
In large part, it has taken the post-truth idea up because of its own electoral weakness – and the feeling that it may not be just temporary.
We must return to open, transparent political patronage. You can place plum jobs beyond scrutiny and accountability, but not above politics.
Plus: Zac’s chances, Jarvis’s speech, Stuart Ramsay’s great scoop. And: how long can it be before Carswell and Evans re-join the Conservatives?
Yet another UN body has launched an attack on the policies of a democratically elected British government.
The idea that public bodies are a last resort must be replaced with the aim of using them well when they are the form best suited to the task.