Unlikely though it may seem, Sir Keir Starmer has become a convert to Dominic Cummings’s analysis of the British state. 

Giving evidence to the House of Commons Liaison Committee last week, the Prime Minister delivered a damning verdict on the dysfunction holding back government.

He said: “As Prime Minister… every time I go to pull a lever, there are a whole bunch of regulations, consultations, arms-length bodies that mean the action from pulling the lever to delivery is longer than I think it ought to be.”

That’s the most powerful person in the land, saying that when he makes decisions, he is obstructed by red tape and bureaucracy. An executive which cannot use its executive powers to get things done is an obvious problem.

A year ago, Starmer criticised the civil service, complaining that “too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline”. His recent remarks go further, suggesting that the issue is not just management culture but the structure and function of the state itself.

The alienation of power from democratically accountable politicians to quangos, the gumming up of decisions through costly consultations, the application of endless regulations which invite further delays and costs in court challenges – each of these is grit in the wheels.

Cumulatively, they create friction and........

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