The parallels to Muabrak's last-ditch cabinet shuffling, in January, seemed almost farcical.
It would enable him to refer them to his cabinet colleagues, ditching the fusty pretence of prime ministerial omniscience.
Mrs Miller made a last-ditch attempt to save her cabinet career on Tuesday, with her parliamentary aide Mary Macleod taking to the airwaves to say there was a press "witch-hunt" against her.
He refused to ditch Harriet Harman, a member of his shadow cabinet, when she annoyed Labour MPs by sending her son to a grammar school, but demoted Clare Short, another shadow-cabinet member, when she made clear her dissent from some of his objectives.Unlike Mr Major, but like Mrs Thatcher, Mr Blair commands the House of Commons.
The governor also chairs cabinet meetings, and has a last-ditch veto.
And having promised a return to proper cabinet process, Turnbull really couldn't start ditching or amending too many of Abbott's policies before he had even appointed a new cabinet.
The latter voted in a referendum in 2008 to ditch its elected mayor system and return to the leader and cabinet system.
She said the speech was a "last-ditch attempt by Liam Byrne to keep his job in the shadow cabinet" before Miliband's reshuffle next month.
For that reason and others, one former cabinet minister describes the budget as "catastrophic" because it risks "ditching more than a decade of work to make Labour the party of aspiration".
In a last-ditch attempt to cling to power, Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, has gambled all on a cabinet shuffle.
Socialist Party members said a last-ditch attempt by Mr. Meta this morning to reach an agreement with Mr. Nano to save his cabinet failed.
