Business secretary John Hutton has got the message: let’s see if the rest of the cabinet can follow. Hutton has declared that the new rules on agency workers are the end of his employment reforms, not the beginning.

Hutton is a military historian who knows that people in holes should stop digging if they want to win. In his day job at the Department of Business he has realised that it is time to stop tampering. A buoyant economy can absorb the cost and inefficiencies of ministerial meddling: change for the sake of change is an unaffordable luxury in a slumping economy.

If Hutton can extend that philosophy to the rest of his brief, resisting the temptation to add more red tape or gold-plate more European regulations, he will ease the burden on business enormously. If he can persuade his cabinet colleagues to follow, he may play a major part in ensuring that slowdown stops short of recession.

Alistair Darling’s brief tenancy at the Treasury shows the disastrous effect of well-meant changes based on political philosophy rather than financial fundamentals. The proposals for non-doms, capital gains tax and income tax reform have damaged the country as well as the government - but for no gain.

Politicians are good at re-arranging deckchairs but not at producing better seating patterns. Putting a hold on new ideas may not be enough to ensure this government is re-elected but it may save its reputation.

The watchword in Whitehall for the rest of this parliament - which will be roughly the duration of the downturn - should be that if it’s not broken, don’t amend it. And that applies across the social agenda as well as the fiscal regime. Change can wait until the economy can afford it.

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