When it actually seems as if real democracy might be about to exert some genuine influence on the nation's

"When it actually seems as if real democracy might be about to exert some genuine influence on the nation's life, the ruling class produces an antibody to counter it. Powell argued that the only true gent of his acquaintance ever to have maintained a blancmange in his top pocket for any decent period of time was the great Lord Curzon. For instance, for over three years we debated that most congenial yet controversial of topics, namely, "Does a True Gentleman Ever Carry a Blancmange in His Top Pocket?". The one fix that has not been tried is open government and devolved power Or real democracy.Neal Ascherson is away.. HOW agreeable it is to find that my old friend and quaffing partner Sir Anthony Powell (never to be rhymed with "trowel" or - heaven forbid! - "bowel") publishes another volume of his delicious journals this month.

The antibody in our time is Lord Goodman."In our time it is consultancy nomenklatura. As an unusually honest management consultant might put it: management consultancy is a lame duck industry propped up by huge public subsidies.In 1972, Kenneth Tynan described Lord Goodman as a man who had for a decade wielded more power than anyone except the prime minister. They are plugged into networks which produce a stream of deals and jobs.There was only one Goodman and his services were called upon during rare crises. But he has spawned thousands of successors who work flat-out, full-time.

The millions they earn suggest that the centralised British state is facing crises so persistent that it requires an army of fixers on permanent duty.But the fixers can't fix it. A Downing Street review discovered that in 1992, they had received pounds 500m of public money for work that generated just pounds 10m of savings. The consultants, lobbyists, quangocrats, think-tank staff are "coalescing into a new nomenklatura", say Smith and Young. The Fixers by Trevor Smith and Alison Young has received high praise. Conservative commentators have focused on its portraits of dead deal-makers. There is the portly figure of Lord Goodman sliding around London of the 1960s, fixing problems for Harold Wilson and Edward Heath.

And there's Lord Franks throwing a bucket of whitewash over the mistakes that led to the Falklands War.Where are the Lord Goodmans whom Major needs to solve the mad cow crisis, asked the Times, ignoring the authors' perceptive answer that they are all around us. Norman Blackwell was in the Downing Street policy unit in the 1980s, moved to the management consultant McKinsey & Co, which sold its services to government and last year was made John Major's chief policy adviser. Is he a public servant or a businessman?A new book attempts to pin down these fuzzy characters. He was head of the Arts Council's Lottery Board, which gave pounds 55m of lottery money to the Royal Opera and then moved to become chairman of the opera house his committee had generously subsidised. Beyond lie the think-tanks, political researchers, personal advisers, party strategy units filled with smart men and women whose composure is only shaken when the mobile phone battery runs low. Their lives are characterised by movement between spheres which would once have been rigorously separated.Take Peter Gummer (brother of John Selwyn).