Electoral reform is the dark cloud on the coalition’s horizon

James Forsyth reviews the week in politics

It is a sign of how well things are going with the coalition that the civil servants left the room towards the end of the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and let the politicians get on with it. The first ‘political Cabinet’ — when its members talk about party business rather than government business — was a brief affair; it only lasted about five minutes and consisted of everyone agreeing that until Labour came up with a credible position on cuts, their joint enemy was going to be isolated. But a full political Cabinet has been scheduled for the end of next month.

When the coalition was first formed, no one quite knew what would happen to political Cabinets. It was unclear whether the two parties — thrown together by the need to form a government — would feel comfortable doing politics in each other’s presence.