That could be difficult long-term partnership, analysts said.
But it is clearly going to take more time, more work and more difficult long-term decisions to achieve.
He said: "Of course, the government has had to take difficult long-term decisions in the national interest and that always makes local elections difficult".
(Romantic complications also permeated the Moon shoot, during which he was trying, like his lead character, to sustain a difficult long-term relationship. "Girls seem to get me in trouble a lot of times," he says).
The focus on individuals, however vile they may be, signifies a shift away from the more difficult, long-term work of making institutions such as the Crown Prosecution Service and other governmental departments accountable.
Politicians usually shy away from big, difficult, long-term problems like this, but at the moment there are actually two genuinely different, and reasonably specific, visions of how to deal with the health-care problem.
Worse, they say, the moves have laid bare the government's real intention: to prop up political bedfellows and put off difficult long-term reform, despite the promises of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
It was not until I had ended a difficult long-term relationship that I came across a quote from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus: "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do".
"While he tries to score cheap political points, this government is taking the difficult, long-term decisions needed to support hard-working families and ensure that it is easier to remove illegal immigrants and stop abuse of our public services".
