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When Tony Blair came to power in 1997, he promised joined-up government. When he was re-elected in 2001, he promised the effective delivery of public services. Both proposals were good ones. Neither has been achieved. There was "a conspicuous lack of a single coherent strategy for government as a whole," a report from the Institute for Government declared yesterday. Downing Street was "completely dysfunctional," adds the memoirs of Peter Watt, a former Labour general secretary, serialised at the weekend. When he arrived as prime minister, Gordon Brown was "simply making it up as he went along", Mr Watt cries.

What went wrong? In their different ways...