Reaching a decision

I'm surprised to read that Sir Robin Butler is 'shocked' at the way decisions are reached in Downing Street - not least because he was Cabinet Secretary in the Labour Government's first year.

But it doesn't surprise me - you only have to read Thirty Days by Peter Stothard to see that.

But it also reminded me of a seminar which I attended at Oxford five years ago with Jonathan Powell, Blair's chief of staff. During the course of the discussion several academics asked how decision-making had changed. Powell outlined the informal nature, including the use of telephone and email to reach them.

"But that's awful!" chorused the assembled great and good of Oxford academia. "How are we to research Government decisions in the future if there are no memos and minutes taken?"

Powell settled back and cast a cool stare over them. "The Government isn't in the business of making future historians' work easier. We have a country to run."

Or something like that.