In the end, though, politicians are judged by what they do, rather than what they say, and on selection, as on Ofsted, he ultimately shrank from breaking with the Blair-Adonis model.
In the three years to the end of 2010, his public funding shrank by 25% because of cuts imposed as a result of the economic crisis.
The Greek economy shrank by 0.2% in the first three months of the year, plunging the troubled country back into recession following a 0.4% fall in GDP in the previous quarter.
From late 2006, the organisation was on the back foot – hampered by a tribal revolt that uprooted its leadership from Anbar and shrank its presence elsewhere in Iraq.
After 1990, civic society shrank, and important social, economic and political questions have not been raised since.
Just as with S&P and Moodys, they form a small but powerful "oligopoly" – what was once the Big Eight shrank to the Big Five and, after the Andersen debacle at Enron, to the Big Four.
But still, even as the morality police units grew in number, manteaus continued to grow progressively shorter and tighter, sleeves shrank, and a new technique emerged to hang the headscarf on a small, pointy bun on the back of women's heads.
The economy actually shrank as recently as the first quarter of this year but that was largely put down to a particularly harsh winter and GDP bounced back in the second quarter.
Its support shrank to just 2.4% at this month's general election with the ANC, boasting South Africa's first Zulu president in Jacob Zuma, making inroads in its heartlands.
The Greek economy shrank in the first three months of the year, plunging the troubled country back into recession following a 0.4% fall in GDP in the previous quarter.
In Berlin in particular, Die Linke over the last eight years actually shrank the (inflated) bureaucracy and proved fiscally highly conservative.
