The great trick of modern politics has been the ability of its actors and institutions to cloak themselves in a veil of de-politicisation. Instead of self-interested networks of power, they become fundamental institutions that are the bedrock of a constitutional state. Things that are relatively young in governmental history and ideology, like the concept of human rights or the Office of Budget Responsibility, are quickly woven into a grand arc of political history which suggests they are continuations of time old traditions, stretching back to Magna Carta or the Star Chamber.