Cabinet reshuffles reveal much about a Prime Minister’s intentions and style of governing. Liz Truss placed a high premium on allocating supporters the top jobs. This rendered her brief administration both narrow and factional. Rishi Sunak has taken an alternative route.
Sunak has appointed from across the party. He has rewarded acolytes, of course. But he has also sought to achieve balance, with ministers from various different factions, in the hope of binding them together. It is a sensible approach.
Continuity has also been key. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly have remained in post, while numerous ministers have returned to their old roles. Given the recent turmoil and turnover — Gillian Keegan has become the fifth Education Secretary in the last four months — some stability is sorely needed.
Eyebrows were certainly raised by one reappointment: that of Suella Braverman to the Home Office. Braverman resigned a week ago over a breach of the ministerial code. One error of a technical nature need not disbar someone from public life indefinitely, but the speed of this return is unusual.
Ultimately, it is time for the Tories to turn their focus outwards and, at this most challenging of times, govern in the interests of the whole country.
On the right track
London never stands still. And from a new fleet of air-cooled Piccadilly line trains and a series of walk-through carriages on the DLR, to old-style pantographs installed to power the electric bus route 132, investment is critical.
Transport for London’s modernisation and march towards net zero carbon emissions must not be constrained by bad blood between City Hall and central government. To that end, the Elizabeth line cannot be the final monument to a time when TfL had the cash and political support to do big things.
Whether it be decarbonising our transport network or boosting capacity, there is only one way forward: investment in our people and infrastructure.
A tea towel that talks
Bond Street. Hydrangeas. Craft gins. Divorce. Online gambling. Vogue. Cushions on beds. The arbiter of style, Nicky Haslam, has issued his latest tea towel bearing a list of the things he finds common — and it is fair to say that no other tea towel will raise such heated discussions (conversations rather than discussions are common).
There are some controversial elements: the inclusion of PG Wodehouse is eccentric and some hydrangeas are very classy. Many Londoners with aspirations to be countrified will be chastened to find that gilets are common, ditto wood-burning stoves. The owners of cockapoos may be wounded to find that their expensive dog is on the list. Some of his prohibitions will come as a relief: flavoured tonic waters are out, so ordinary Indian tonic water is in.
Haslam’s tea towel is the nearest we get nowadays to Nancy Mitford’s 1954 essay on U and non-U usage: that is to say, both preposterous and insightful. One element on the lists will surely unite all Londoners: “See it, say it, sorted.” Ban it now.
