Finally, the committee used a so-called "model" to estimate how much political parties would lose from a donation cap of £10,000 per annum. Albeit with provisos, it suggested that the taxpayer should make up for the supposed loss to the parties of a contribution cap. This loss is a fallacy: political parties find ways to adapt their fundraising to new rules. A study of the US showed that parties actually raised more money after the introduction of restrictive rules about permitted contributions.

Less noticed but more important than Sir Christopher's report was the final publication on October 24 of Sir Gus O'Donnell's parting shot, the Cabinet Manual. O'Donnell is likely to make his mark as the most controversial Cabinet Secretary of recent times. His departure is rumoured to have been less amicable than it was presented to be. Not the least of his actions were his attempts to introduce constitutional innovations before the 2010 general election which would have boosted the chances of the Liberal Democrats in the event of a hung election. Dressed up as a method borrowed from a Commonwealth country (New Zealand), the procedures recommended by O'Donnell to form a government in these circumstances reflected and promoted the coalitionist practices of countries on the European continent with multi-party systems and proportional representation voting. O'Donnell's proposed method clearly favoured the Liberal Democrats.

Some of the sting has been taken out of O'Donnell's original proposals published in December 2010. That version was modified in response to criticisms submitted to three parliamentary committees; it then seems to have been changed yet again and delayed further over the summer recess. 

The civil service-Lib Dem nexus has taken other forms too. It presents a potent problem for David Cameron. Within No 10, a number of Cameron's political advisers have been squeezed out and career civil servants have taken their places. When it comes to policy development and, in particular, advice on vital constitutional matters, Team Cameron is dangerously understaffed. In part, the determination of the top official in Downing Street, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to reassert civil service influence around the Prime Minister is a rational reaction to the Gordon Brown era. But the cull of political advisers has gone too far.