Independent: Standing at her office window, the Environment Secretary is suddenly embarrassed. “Don’t look too closely at the curtains,” she says while posing for photographs. “They are falling apart.” From a distance the floor-to-ceiling drapes, in a faded blue, seem in good order but up close the stray threads and moth holes are clearer. Without missing a beat, Caroline Spelman recalls the coalition’s “make do and mend” philosophy, which will get a thorough airing at the Conservative Party conference …