In his coruscating analysis into how health minister Andrew Lansley's obsession with overhauling management structures could saddle the NHS with £4bn of costs – one-fifth of Whitehall's targeted £20bn spending savings – LSE academic, Patrick Dunleavey, quoted historian Barbara Tuchman's March Of History.

Ms Tuchman asserts: ‘Wooden-headedness... plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions, while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish, while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.'