Reshuffles invariably end in tears under David Cameron.
The first time he refreshed his team back in 2012 it was claimed Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan greeted while the PM simultaneously sacked her and sipped a glass of wine.
On Tuesday I saw an MP who had been a minister just hours before crying into his rump of lamb while his former boss told others close by what a top chap he’d been.
The three bottles of wine lined up on the table either helped to temper or turn on the tears. For the PM however the reshuffle was a triumph. Almost.
The operation came unstuck when it became clear that the new Leader of the House of Lords was going to be paid less than the man that preceded her Lord Hill, off to be our man in Brussels.
It was a particular poor piece of management given the reshuffle was meant to, in part at least, be about promoting women and getting closer to that target of one third women ministers by the end of the parliament.
Since this was only a Tory reshuffle it’s up to the Lib Dems to make up that quota now. They won’t because they only have six female MPs including Su Pollard lookalike Annette Brooke and refusenik Sarah Teather who has already said she’s stepping down next year.
The females promoted by Cameron are not token women.
Liz Truss has lived up to her reputation as a pocket rocket at the Department for Education. Though given she seems to have a genuine interest in education and childcare it’s odd she didn’t get the top job there, instead being given the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs brief.
On the face it that makes sense since she represents a Norfolk seat and the move will no doubt go down well with the so-called Turnip Taliban who make up her electorate.
Allegedly one of her local party once described her approvingly as “a right good heifer”. However she’s never previously shown any interest in badgers, forests, floods defences or donning wellies.
The top job at Education went to Nicky Morgan. Marathon running mum Morgan has impressed since she was drafted into the Treasury team.
She’s already been compared to some of Labour’s duff Education Secretaries such as Estelle Morris and Ruth Kelly but Morgan so far has shown enough form to suggest she’ll make a fist of the brief and maybe even better.
David Cameron was short-lived in the education brief before stepping up as leader. There was only a vacancy at education because Cameron, in the biggest surprise of the reshuffle, sacked old chum Michael Gove.
Gove has shaken up the education establishment and made few friends along the way. Bizarrely falling out with teachers as education secretary was not what did for Gove, falling out with Cabinet colleagues is.
He over-reached himself last month in a spat with Home Secretary Theresa May. The new Iron Lady has emerged the clear winner of that bout with Gove taking a step down to be Chief Whip.
Before Gove was axed William Hague’s exit had been the big story. Philip Hammond replaces him at the Foreign Office though it’s likely “Box Office Phil” as he’s ironically nicknamed won’t be there long.
It’s rumoured George Osborne fancies foreign affairs if there’s a Tory government after the election because if that happens Europe will be where the action is.
Fix the economy and successfully renegotiate with the EU and Osborne will be a shoe in for next PM. For now though there’s no vacancy at the top.
With this generally shrewd reshuffle David Cameron may have made it less likely there’ll be one after next May too.
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