I have long laboured under the belief that most government directives or new policies are made up around the dinner party table or at the bar, and then written down on the back of an envelope. Fortunately most of us forget the rubbish we have spouted by the next day, but budding politicians must always have a pencil in their pockets. The next day these thoughts arrive in Whitehall from a 'think tank'.
Obviously, this cannot be true, so I am sure that clever politicians must be trying to break down very complex strategies into bite sized chunks that the great unwashed (otherwise known as the electorate), and newspaper sub-editors can understand. "Declare war on Saddam Hussein before he kills us with his long range missiles" seems pretty clear, as does, " Send mums in to keep schools open during teachers' strikes."
I wonder if the relative failure of the "Big Society" is related to the inability of our Prime Minister to articulate its meaning in 20 words or less. Sadly I still did not understand it after a 1000 word article. So what would your précis policy be? Remember you don't have to worry about any unexpected or even highly predictable negative consequences. No one else seems to.
I'd like to get rid of the eyesore of an office block that has stood derelict a mile from my house for the last 20 years. Local protests and council intervention have all been thwarted. So, "Solve housing shortage by compulsory purchase of any properties that have stood unused for over 10 years." I'm sure there must be some unpaid intern or researcher to pad this out into a white paper.
Or perhaps, "Strong discipline to be restored in new academies, to raise educational standards." I think that means expelling academically challenged or appallingly, badly behaved children, but I could be wrong. If you can get it down to 10 words or less though; "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime," or " The NHS is safe with us," then you just have a slogan rather than a policy and that would of course never do.