Few of us will forget Ms Stuart, as a junior health minister, clinging to the Prime Minister on his election swing through a Birmingham hospital where he was mugged by an angry voter complaining at NHS treatment of her partner. Candidates for Congress during presidential election campaigns often hope to ride to victory on the back of their party’s presidential nominee. Some presidential candidates have longer coat tails than others. Richard Nixon had short coat tails, but Ronald Reagan and George W Bush have benefited Republican congressmen, governors and senators. Labour MPs have, thankfully, seen that being lobby fodder by riding on Mr Blair’s coat tails is no longer the easy ride to re-election – or even reselection.The concept of “presidential coat tails” originated in the United States.

For the health of democracy and Parliament, this has been no bad thing. Commentators have eased up on their complaints that Parliament no longer matters. The green shoots of a resurgent Commons as the cockpit of national political debate have taken us – and the Prime Minister – by surprise. The added ingredient of a potentially united and competent Opposition has reinvigorated the chamber, and debates are worth attending both for the content of speeches and even, more often than not, for the element of drama in the division lobbies.

The tail now has a chance to wag the dog for the first time since Labour came to power nearly seven years ago. During 2003, Labour MPs found both their voices and their votes. Meanwhile, Lord Williams of Mostyn, the Leader of the Lords, died and was replaced by Baroness Amos.
Although the individual circumstances were arguably less dramatic, the turnover rivals that of Harold Macmillan’s infamous “night of the long knives” in 1962, when a third of the Cabinet was also replaced. And there may be more to come after Lord Hutton delivers his report in a fortnight’s time. Rumour has it that the Prime Minister is likely to perform yet another re-shuffle, with Geoff Hoon at the Ministry of Defence first in the firing line.The longer governments are in office, the greater the propensity to reshape, relaunch and reshuffle. Dead ministerial bodies continue to pile up on the backbenches.