Reshuffles are like political porn for Westminster geeks

reshuffle

So, after 4 years largely without change, the reshuffle finally happened. Reshuffles are like political porn for Westminster geeks – everything stops because no-one knows what tomorrow looks like. It is also bit like an awards ceremony for politicos like me. Who wins and who loses? Who is up and who is down? Are the people you know promoted, demoted or – worst cut of all –  ignored or overlooked? Should you take it personally, tweet about it, vent on Facebook?

ID-100236393 (1)Then the endless navel-gazing analysis comes – has George Osborne won or David Cameron? Is that even the correct premise for a question? Was it a win for women, or for traditionalists, or for Right or Left, or for Modernisers or Traditionalists or just a lurch to the right – with Labour not sure what to call it and then deciding on ‘massacre of the moderates’ amongst other things… And so the column inches of commentators will go on and on…

For so many staff and MP it is about their futures, their jobs and their CVs – especially for the Minister-dependent SPADS who lose their whole jobs and salary while their MP bosses only lose salary and their Ministerial title. (Good luck to all those SPADS who lost their jobs today!)

Behind all the intoxicating excitement of this political porn for Westminster geeks, is the reality that, thankfully for the UK and The Conservative Party, David Cameron was spoilt for choice. He had a large number of high calibre Conservative MPs to choose from and few positions to place them in because of the Coalition. Of course, there were some surprise appointments, but they were not compulsory because of the choice available – DC must have had a thought process behind each appointment rather than a resigned – “Well, who else is there?” moment. Or one would hope so at least!

I know many of those who have won, lost or been overlooked today. Whether they are friends or clients, winners or losers – their lives have changed today – soared or dived. Salaries have gone up or down. Jobs and responsibilities have changed dramatically. For reasons of client discretion and party loyalty I won’t go into the individual promotions that I jumped up and down about, the changes I dropped my jaw or shook my head at or the quality people that were disappointingly overlooked. But I am delighted that David Cameron had so many good people with good intentions to choose from – and that I had a small role in helping some of those people get selected and then elected. Most, if not all, came into parliament with good intentions, most will work exceptionally hard and some will actually achieve success for themselves and change for our country. Individually and collectively they are far, far ahead of most of their counterparts in the Labour Party.

Here is the full list from the official UK Government website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministerial-appointments-july-2014

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