Cabinet decision making?

Andrew Blick (London, Democratic Audit): Readers of today’s Independent and Daily Telegraph will be led to believe that Gordon Brown intends to restore collective government through the appointment of “a senior civil servant to take charge of cabinet government”. Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, is expected to make "an announcement". Hold on, isn’t it the job of O’Donnell, as Cabinet Secretary, to be the guardian of collective decision-making and proper process? This leak has all the smell of a familiar ‘fix’. For example, if, by any chance, and perish the thought, there is not collective Cabinet decision making in a Brown government, instead of holding the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary to account, which seems natural, we will be told to blame a poor minion instead. Don’t expect us to keep a straight face. The leak also lets it be known that this is one of a number of steps that will end ‘sofa government’, perhaps in response to the Ken Clark Democracy Task Force proposals. But such kind of leaks were a hallmark of sofadom.