The ten ages of policy development

A regular Tory tactic is to cry that everything done by the Government is "old" or a reannouncement. Occasionally this is fair, although Peter Riddell has argued that this may not do the Tories much good. Chris Paul, a Labour blogger, suggests a certain inevitability, given the way policy in the UK is born. He lists the stages:

1. Consultations
2. Policy forum
3. Conference
4. Green paper
5. White paper
6. First Reading and other Parliamentary stages
7. Law passed
8. Pilots run
9. Pilots appraised
10. Roll out/Mainstream

Plenty of opportunity for "spin" ...