This apparently is an epigram by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in the January 1849 issue of his journal Les Guêpes (“The Wasps”). Literally “The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.”

In the same way, James MacIntyre, John Rentoul, Mehdi Hasan and Sunder Katwala will always be there, Labour will always be there. Or maybe not – Luke Bozier has recently departed.

Not much has fundamentally happened in fact. The Unions are still ‘angry’ with Labour, but actually no union is ‘pulling out’. Ed Balls still feels that the cuts are ‘too fast and too deep’, and this explains why he’s not surprised that the deficit will be paid off in 2017 at the earliest. The Tories pretend to be against the Human Rights Act, but they know full well that even if they scrap the Act the jurisdiction of Strasbourg will still exist – unless we leave Europe. Talking of which, are we leaving Europe? No, don’t be silly.

The parties are still appalled at bankers’ bonuses, except nobody really wants to do much about it. The law regarding renumeration and corporate governance has not changed. However, we do know now that the clause obliging Hester to get a huge bonus does not as such exist, despite what the Coalition has been spinning for the last couple of years at least.

It’s still the case that Labour ‘overspent’, but hold on Labour still spent money to recapitalise the banks to stop the banks imploding. And George Osborne wouldn’t have stopped the fall of Lehmans or Northern Rock, either. It might have been possible that the Conservatives might have wished to maintain spending in NHS and state schools, indeed that is why they matched Labour’s comprehensive spending review of 2007.

I am of course being disingenuous. The Liberal Democrats are on 8% in the polls, although Nick Clegg remains ever popular when polling data are actually analysed. Ed Miliband still fails to impress apparently, and the Labour/crossbench Lordships are still able to create trouble for the Welfare Reform Bill despite the fact the LibDem peers voting with the Government. The NHS Bill is still a disaster, with the majority of the public and the Royal Colleges opposing it.

So the Government will get its legislation through, the deficit will get worse so long as unemployment increases and welfare benefits spending increases, the Unions continue to fund Labour, the Tories deny that emergency recapitalisation of the banks was necessary and deny that public spending was a good idea, and the Liberal Democrats become increasingly unpopular. The regulation of the media is a bit faulty at least, but will Leveson encourage state legislation? Probably no.

So are we just playing for time now? Yes.