Whenever the blame game begins over botched attempts at the radical Whitehall reforms all parties agree are necessary, it is worth bearing in mind the key departments with oversight for central government have been subject to swingeing cutbacks themselves. Both the Cabinet Office and the Treasury have signed up to spending round budget cuts of up to 35%, and the Exchequer will have shed a quarter of its staffby 2014/15. In WB Yeats' oft-quoted poem The Gyres, 'things fall apart/the centre cannot hold/mere anarchy is loosed upon the world'. In seeking to maintain its grip on the centre, coordinating the work of government, enabling its strategic aims to be realised and providing a clear view of how government is operating, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury manage 17 main departments of varying size and complexity.
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