ABSTRACT
A Prime Minister’s Department, revival of a Cabinet strategy staff, more special advisers, more units like the Social Exclusion Unit: no one of these solutions automatically excludes all the others, nor is there any single correct solution. There is no platonic ideal for the arrangement of functions at the centre. Besides, Prime Ministers are wont periodically to re-order the central machinery of government because of its highly personal nature: much depends on the needs of the moment, the personalities in the government and the Prime Minister’s own working habits. This points to a flexible constellation of small, free-standing units as at present. No solution will be definitive; even a Prime Minister’s department which, once created, might be seen as a definitive innovation, could easily see its functions increased and decreased over time, as has happened in Canada, Australia and Italy.
