By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. The way reshuffles work is roughly as follows: Downing Street lets it be known that a shuffle will happen about a week in advance. Journalists and politicians look down the list of Ministers and identify the longest-serving. They repeat these names to each other as likely shuffle victims. These […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. "Well done, Mrs May," says the Express this morning. "Well done, Mrs May," echoes the Mail. (Or perhaps it's the other way round.) "The best Home Secretary in years, declares the Sun. The Times (£) is more restrained: "Abu Qatada’s scrupulously legal expulsion shows the vitality of democratic values," […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. This morning's Sun listed the following Ministers as being at risk in a reshuffle: Philip Hammond, Oliver Letwin, Justine Greening, Maria Miller, Andrew Robathan, Theresa Villiers and Helen Grant. The Times (£) also listed Greening in its report, and its worth noting that the reports of the two Murdoch […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. In Othello, Iago suggests to the Moor that ideas can have value, but that money has none: "Who steals my purse steals trash. 'Tis something, nothing:/'Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands." The audience knows as it listens that the man is manipulating his master – […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Here are three measures that, if implemented – Will help to quell the charge that the Party is being led by a "Chumocracy" unrepresentative of its MPs and members. Will stop David Cameron being ambushed by Conservative backbenchers on EU policy, as he was by John Baron's amendment to […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. This weekend of the “mad, swivel-eyed loons” row will swiftly be followed by Commons debate on the same-sex marriage bill. Will Conservative MPs accept Lord Feldman's denial, view the incident as yet another instance of media irresponsbility, and look more sympathetically on the measure – on which David Cameron […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. The Financial Times this morning reports the conduct of a Cabinet Minister who arrived at his Department in a position of strength. Philip Hammond is digging in over cuts to his budget. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports the plans of another, who came to his Department in a position […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Below is the Cabinet league table derived from our latest survey of Conservative party members. It’s rather traditional for IDS, Michael Gove and William Hague to be at the top – and for Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and Ed Davey to be at the bottom – so I’ll highlight three […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Michael Fallon will have had a twinkle in his eye when he told the Daily Telegraph that “Energy policy shouldn’t be ideological". The Climate Change Department Minister is one of the few Thatcherites from the lady's era in government, and little to him comes ideology-free – not even, one […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. It's characteristic of George Osborne, professional politician that he is, to have dodged the inevitable question this week on whether he could live on £53 a week, and also characteristic of Iain Duncan Smith, who is not a professional politician at all, to have confronted it. Andrew Pierce of […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. George Osborne is no less a pupil of Gordon Brown than Ed Balls, at least when it comes to moving pieces on the political chessboard. To change the image, Brown was a believer in "dividing lines" – gambits designed to throw his opponents on the defensive. "Labour Investment versus […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter David Cameron has conducted a mini reshuffle this morning. He has appointed John Hayes MP to the Cabinet Office and Michael Fallon will be taking over John's Energy brief. Both men have been two of the Coalition's success stories. Taking John Hayes first. In his previous ministerial incarnation Hayes […]