But, now the 100 days are almost up, it is time, surely, for a rest and not just for civil servants and ministers to recharge their batteries. Anything the previous government languidly brushed aside, this one has pursued, including, last week alone, investigations into the death of Stephen Lawrence and Gulf war syndrome.
Everything, it seems, is open to review. For ministers, too, the opportunity to slow the cultural revolution and pause for breath is welcome. This will have been a 100-day term like no other in modern British politics.
Even Margaret Thatcher at her most energetic and relentless was no match for Tony Blair. Attempting to recall all the changes is akin to that moment on the television show The Generation Game where the winner has to remember all the prizes from the conveyor belt: operational independence for the Bank of England to set interest rates; major overhaul of financial regulation; students to pay part of their tuition fees; new code of conduct for ministers; windfall tax; ban on handguns; welfare to work; negotiation of IRA ceasefire The list goes on and on and on. Hardly a day has passed without the announcement of a new scheme or a new inquiry or a new “task force”. In all the places where senior civil servants choose to holiday this August the collective sighs of relief will be loud and long. Ever since 1 May and the arrival of new Labour masters and mistresses they have been working at breakneck speed, rushing through policy initiatives like there was no tomorrow They are exhausted.
Parliamentary team lent morale- boosting cohesion through shared aim of eliminating all bunnies.Sunday 12.30pm: Close of play. All remaining MPs to lie down, play dead and, after 10 years, hope for sympathy vote from electorate.2.30pm: Departure of W Hague, tanned and reinvigorated, with top-secret plans for constructive dismissal of between 150 and 160 remaining Conservative MPs Bravo!. Couples commence executive “happily married” role-play.Sunday 9.15am: Commencement “paint-balling”. Mr and Mrs Neil Hamilton in bunny costumes to be released from traps. 12.30pm: With team now united, Bar-B-Q lunch to be served on patio, cooked blindfold and washed up naked by defeated candidates only too happy to take any job they’re given.2.00pm-6.00pm: Executive role-play commences. All MPs to assume roles of disgruntled has-beens undergoing severe identity crises.
W Hague to cajole them out of it with promise of runaway election triumph in 2012.8.30pm: Bedtime. Members are reminded that secretaries, personal assistants, Cabinet colleagues, etc, must remain in separate quarters. After much thought, I faxed him a timetable for successful Tory team-building. Saturday 9.30am: Assemble in hall with firearms, T Gorman and E Heath don Pantomime Horse costume. 9.40am: Gorman and Heath released from trap, given 10 minutes start without map.9.45am: Commence “Shoot the Horse” competition. 10.15am: After successful conclusion of competition, call twin by-elections without delay. Suffice it to say, I emerged a better man: the very next week, I was able to recommend over 250 middle-ranking machine operatives for immediate redundancy, the following week a further 75 members of middle- management.With this in mind, it was natural that William should approach my own good self for advice on how to make his “survival weekend” go with the proverbial swing.