More evidence that No 10 needs to tighten its grip The extent to which 10 Downing Street is being driven by events rather than driving them has been laid bare by Steve Hilton, the Prime Minister's chief policy adviser. Currently taking a one-year sabbatical at Stanford University in California, Mr Hilton has shared with his students his frustration at the way the Government's agenda is persistently thwarted by an unholy alliance of Brussels and the civil service. According to Mr Hilton, no more than 30 per cent of government time is devoted to the political platform on which it was elected. The remaining time is spent dealing with EU regulations and what he described as "random things" that have nothing to do with the Coalition Agreement but are being produced by "paper-shuffling" civil servants. Describing the situation as "pretty horrific," Mr Hilton said it frequently resulted in Downing Street learning from the radio or TV about new policies of which it not only knew nothing, but with which it did not even agree. It is not the first time that the apparent impotence of the Prime Minister's office has been highlighted. Last October, Oliver Dowden, David Cameron's deputy chief of staff, told an American interviewer that most of his time was spent on "crisis management" and that he was "surprised on a day-to-day basis" to hear what was going on when he tuned into BBC Radio's Today programme in the mornings. This disturbing state of affairs points both to a failure of leadership from Mr Cameron himself and a weakness in the No 10 personnel structure. The Prime Minister's willingness to delegate is in many ways admirable, but not when it leads to sloppiness. He is acknowledged to be a good crisis manager but he would arguably have fewer crises to manage if he exerted a tighter grip on his senior team. And that team would, in turn, benefit from the presence of one or two grizzled political heavyweights who not only have governing experience but who also know the importance of keeping both focused and on message. In the eyes of many ministers, the real problem in Downing Street has been the ascendancy of Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary. He is said to be the man Mr Cameron most relies on, which makes him the most powerful man in No 10 after the Prime Minister. There could hardly be a better illustration of Mr Hilton's assertion that "the bureaucracy masters the politicians." It does not have to be like this, as Michael Gove has shown at the Department for Education and Iain Duncan Smith at the Department for Work and Pensions. These strong-minded ministers show independence, passion and unstinting drive - commodities that could usefully be deployed in Downing Street.