Astute politicians know the best way of killing off unpopular proposals is to subject them to an independent review. This is particularly effective when the review has ill-defined objectives, a distant deadline and is conducted by a panel of specialists and generalists who are guaranteed to disagree on everything.

To the great unwashed, it looks as if something is being done, even though the opposite is true. Review bodies, like committees, are groups of people who individually can do nothing but who collectively conclude that nothing can be done.