View from above:

Whitehall is having to accommodate its first coalition government in more than half a century

Figuring it out: Sir Alan Budd will take the politics out of economic and public finance forecasts

Cabinet Office has had removal men all over the place, as new offices are created for all these ministers and their officials.

This physical dislocation is matched by personnel problems, as Conservative and LibDem ministers and advisers get to know each other. This is in marked con- trast to the normal experience in a new government, when members of the in- coming political team have got to know each other very well during the battles of opposition, often creating an inner cadre that it is hard for civil servants to pene- trate. But now they are working alongside people they did not know previously and regarded as political foes. To date, the in- tegration of policy and communications teams has apparently worked well amid the adrenalin rush and excitement of creating the coalition.

The lead has been taken in the public harmony shown by Cameron and Clegg. That is crucial to the success of any coali- tion, as the good relations between Donald Dewar and Jim Wallace showed in the creation of the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition in Scotland in 1999. The same has been true for Labour and Plaid Cymru in Wales since 2007. But for the new government, beneath the top two there are uncertainties and doubts in both parties. Many Tory MPs and ministers would have preferred a Conservative minority administration and another general election in the au- tumn, when they would have hoped to win an overall majority. They are con- cerned about a dilution of Conservative manifesto pledges and about the alloca- tion of five Cabinet posts and 15 other government roles to the LibDems. So well over 20 Tory MPs and peers are feeling rather aggrieved at not getting the

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