Whitehall tends to reflect the prevailing political agenda far better than many insiders – who involuntarily
genuflect at the altar of the 1854 Northcote Trevelyan reforms – might care to acknowledge.

As evidence of this, before the millennium,barely one department retained the head of
press in place at the tail end of the Major administration.This mirrored New Labour's desire
to control the story in government as it hadlearned to in opposition.