Reshuffle

On hearing the recent news that Baroness Butler-Sloss had stepped down as the head of the historic child abuse inquiry because she felt that she 'wasn't the right person for the job' Dennis Skinner cut to the point as usual "Most of Cameron's cabinet should do the same."

I don't know if William Hague was listening to advice from the long standing MP for Bolsover when he threw the towel in, but the loss of experienced cabinet members like Hague and Ken Clarke is worrying, we could see a lurch further to the right before the election. And while I don't agree with Hague's politics he was a statesmanlike Foreign Secretary. Philip Hammond is a bizarre choice, described by Rhonda MP Chris Bryant as "a man trying to catch up with the 1990s whilst busily shouting at foreigners" Foreign office staff could be worried for their jobs, it is difficult to see him as anything other than a 'hatchet man' after making 3000 armed forces personnel redundant since 2010.

Staff rooms were relieved that Gove is no longer at Education. He consistently put ideology before outcomes and stubbornly refused to listen to teachers. He prioritised free schools over the vast majority of existing schools, diverting £400M from the education budget into his free school pet project. He will not be missed, but why has Cameron made him chief whip? Gove the enforcer? If he is as good in the whips office as he was at education, the Government could be losing divisions in the commons soon.

His replacement Nicky Morgan has one thing going for her, she is not Micheal Gove, however Cameron has also made her Women and Equalities minister at the same time. That is clearly two roles. What is it with Tories and 2nd jobs? Being an MP is a full time job there should be no time to earn on the side as a consultant, barrister or company director. Ministers are also MPs and giving one person 2 briefs to look after means that something will have to suffer, probably Women, and Equalities.

It is too easy to gloat when this Tory government gets things wrong, but there are real consequences of incompetence, people are struggling while they say 'tax cut for the rich, real terms pay cut for everyone else, job done. Now time for a pre-election reshuffle so people think we've changed' 

The headlines are that the Conservatives have tried to make the cabinet a bit less male and a bit less stale. Outside of the Westminster bubble and buried under the blanket of reshuffle news was a significant jump in inflation, with many of us already finding that our pay is not going as far as it should, this is unwelcome news.