SEE if you can spot the common theme with the five recent defeats that the Council of Ministers have had in the States: the Millennium Town Park, a financial ombudsman, a rental deposit protection scheme, the Bellozanne sewage treatment works, and cleaning up the rubbish that goes into the La Collette incinerator.

Got it? Of course you did. What they have in common is that none of them are new. In fact, most of them have been rattling around for around a decade, some a bit longer.

Each of them has been picked up, chewed over and tossed out a time or two in the last ten years. Each one has a measure of general public support, to a greater or lesser degree. And over the last fortnight, each of them took a decisive step closer to finally being sorted out – despite the objections of ministers, who had other priorities in mind.

Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur and his band of ministers have been in business for exactly ten months today so it would be a tad harsh to hold them personally responsible for the fact that there is currently no town park, no ombudsman, no protection for tenant deposits, no progress on sorting out the smell at Bellozanne and not a lot of progress on what gets chucked into the incinerator.

Some of them have been around long enough that they have to share some of the blame for those things –- but the key word there is share. There’s plenty of blame to go round, after all.

But it wouldn’t be too harsh to point out that the first Council of Ministers under Frank Walker never got turned over quite so many times in such quick succession. Taken on its own, the flip-flopping on GST exemptions was worse – but it was a one-off, and it was after all perfectly timed to take place just before the 2008 election. But generally speaking, the Council of Ministers version 1.0 stomped on everything and everyone before them.

The new version, Council of Ministers 1.1, doesn’t (partly because most of them aren’t quite as, well, stompy). But that doesn’t mean it’s on the ropes, or particularly weak, or unusually gaffe-prone – actually, it points to something else entirely.

What it points to is that the balance has shifted. Not much. Just a bit. But much closer to what you’d have to think that the Founding Fathers of the Clothier Panel had in mind for how ministerial government should look: with a Council of Ministers mostly going about its business, but occasionally getting slapped around by the rest of the States Chamber when they get a bit too big for their boots.

And that’s why it’s significant that the five big defeats weren’t on new issues, and were on debates that have been lingering around for years. The votes were close, the issues weren’t fresh or radical, and the debates were not ideologically about left and right – and therefore the failings of ministers were in judgment, not direction.

Put simply, it’s all working a bit better and a bit closer to the middle.

After spending nine days out of the last three weeks sitting in the States, it’s hard to attribute much credit to anyone in there. But if credit for a change in balance is going round, some of it should probably go to the new Members, one of whom, it seems, can do no wrong.

Just a few months ago, Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand came as close as he has come since taking office to getting a hard time from his colleagues when he told them that his officers had been keeping secret files on them. Within a few days, they forgave him. Since then, his stock has kept growing.

And after his speech during the Millennium Town Park debate – in which he attacked his ministerial colleagues for their unwillingness to commit to the project and their preference for prevarication – well, it’s just getting silly. Even the Jersey Democratic Alliance seem to like him, and Deputy Phil Rondel practically swoons every time he gets up to speak.

Too early to think about who is going to be running Council of Ministers 1.2?

The former Bailiff, Sir Philip Bailhache, could only just about hide his irritation with States Members from time to time when proceedings had to be stopped because too few Members were in the Chamber.

The new boss, Michael Birt, has a different approach. He doesn’t bother trying to hide his irritation.

Mr Birt snapped at Members last Monday afternoon, noting that they had struggled to maintain a quorum all day, but that Members kept flooding back into the Chamber every time a vote was called. The result? A much-chastened House, a much emptier coffee room, and much fuller States Chamber.

Sometimes you’ve just got to know how to talk to these people…