What a week it has been! The knives were
out and many a distinguished cabinet and government minister felt the cold
steel pressing against their back as they were flung, Lucifer-like, to the
inferno of the back benches or shuffled sideways and downwards into lesser
posts – nearer the salt cellars as opposed to the mustard pot, on Cameron’s dining table.
Of course, pundits were out in force
offering their penny’s worth about this ‘monumental shift’ in the dream team,
and, as a Conservative myself, I thought I’d throw my own coppers into the fountain
and give my thoughts to anyone who will listen.
Following the announcements on Monday going
into Tuesday, hyperbole flew thick and fast. Words like ‘shift’, ‘earthquake’,
‘sea change’, ‘tidal’ were bandied around, and it all got a bit dramatic. Some
were in praise, others were in dismay, especially at The Daily Mail. Carrot-topped hammer-thrower of the
home counties, Simon Heffer claimed that the outcome was ‘simply terrifying’
especially when, apparently, a government advisor thought that a ‘clone’ of
highly uninspiring Jeremy Hunt (Health) would be perfect in Education. Nicky
Morgan is yet to prove herself, and the question will be whether she carries on
Gove’s brave and necessary revolution of our education system.
I’ll come to this more in a second, but
firstly, let me pin my colours to the mast and say that I am rather dismayed by
the rashness of the reshuffle and they way that it was propositioned to the
public yet I am not willing to pass judgment on its ability to govern as it is
yet to be proven. It does worry me however, that cabinet ministers who had
really mastered their brief over years have been cast aside for a younger,
fresh-faced and more glamorous collective.
Of the newbies to cabinet, Esther McVey has
been lavished with praise, she did a good job as a minister and has never been
afraid to make a controversial statement – will her fire be translated into the new role? Time will tell, but it is usually the convention that a place at
table requires a certain degrees of quiet loyalty and curbing of the more
pugnacious elements of the spirit. This is something that a personal favourite, Michael
Gove, found to his detriment when Cameron was drawing up his new look. I look
forward to watching her over the next year in the run up to 2015 and, given her
impressive presence on television and radio, used extensively as a party
figurehead.
Gove has been the most brilliant Education
Secretary in modern times, unraveling the mess made of our system since Harold
Wilson decided to tinker so disastrously with the lives of Britain’s youth.
This is not to say that his predecessors are any different: the lacklustre
National Curriculum (1988) of Lord Baker, the disastrous interventions of the
Blair/Brown years and the continual, passive treatment of the NUT have all
played their part in seeing our education system sink into the doldrums. Gove’s
vision, his combativeness and his desire to see a cultural shift has been one
of the most impressive and exciting aspects of this Government.
You cannot force change without opposition
and of course, the National Union of Teachers, the darlings of the wishy-washy,
liberal left have tried to block reform at every turn. Their cynical
campaigning and briefings have culminated in the removal of one of the most
dynamic figures in British Politics, consigning him to the role of Chief Whip.
It all feels like a desire from Downing Street to placate another professional
minority to squeeze out a few more votes.
It’s a terrible waste. I am sure Gove will
be brilliantly effective in his new role but his talent for policy will surely
be missed. Will Nicky Morgan, his
successor and Osborne apparatchik continue with his reforms or will they be
shelved in yet another move to placate an outdated and introspective trade
union, it all smacks of ‘In Place of Strife’!
William Hague was another departure yet
I’m not lamenting this, a highly intelligent man I always felt he was wasted in
the Foreign Office in an age where the Prime Minister focuses more on global
and less on domestic issues. Announcing his intention to stand down and
probably pursue a far more rewarding career, could we see him doing a Portillo?
Maybe touring around Yorkshire in a hot air balloon for ITV? Or perhaps in a
cameo in Brangelina’s next blockbuster? My old favourite Quentin Letts assures
us all that he is back in his element as Leader of the Commons where he will be able
to enjoy himself in a more junior cabinet post, letting him indulge in deliciously-wicked despatch box banter.
Max Hastings summed up his replacement
Philip ‘The Hamster’ Hammond well: an
accountant who displays the warmth of an undertaker and less personality than
most laptops. He is a shrewd operator though, and I will watch his tenure
in the office with interest, especially on his stance towards the EU.
My political hero, Ken Clarke, has finally
gone but what a career! His balance and advice will be missed but, in the words
of Francis Urquhart, ‘Nothing lasts forever…’. I hope that he will still be a
vocal voice from the back benches and continue to offer his refreshing approach
to the European debate and the financial approach of this government.
Owen Paterson was much lamented, he’d done
a good job and was on top of his brief. Alas, his right-wing stance seemed
rather distasteful to our dear leader and his ruddy, man-from-the-shires look
seemed woefully out of touch with focus group findings. He might be gone but I
can see him making quite a stink from the back benches, especially as he will
now be able to exercise free-rein over his anti-European views.
Of course I could go on and one, but I cannot cover all the changes
in such great detail otherwise the blog would stretch to pages and pages of
text, but I do think that the appointment of Michael Fallon was a
master-stroke. One of the Government’s most media-savvy performers, his performances
at the hands of the BBC attack dogs are always entertaining and his
stonewalling is a lesson in departmental discretion. A staunch right-winger the
Defence brief seems suited to him and I look forward to more passive aggressive
performances on the goggle-box in the coming year.
Summing up, I don’t buy this silly ‘Pale
and Male’ argument that is being bandied around in some quarters. Perhaps there
was some element of positive discrimination but who cares? The Proof will be in
how well they perform and, until I see all the new appointments in action, I
cannot possibly pass judgment on their ability to do the job.
The most important thing now is to get
behind the party to ensure that we edge over the line in 2015, if we in the
party keep sniping internally we’ll get nowhere. One thing is for sure, we must
at all costs stop the heir to Michael Foot, Ed Miliband with his brand of
concrete and breeze block politics getting anywhere near Downing Street. It
will be an exciting battle, but I believe we can do it, and, as much as it
pains a large section of the party, we need to get behind this new cabinet and
offer our support to ensure we get that majority next year.
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