CAMERON SHUFFLES THE DECK CHAIRS.

As anticipated for several weeks, David Cameron has reshuffled his cabinet, not that it will make much difference to anything.

 

All of the major roles - Chancellor, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary - have been untouched as have been Education and Work and Pensions, though the latter post was reportedly the subject of a battle, with Cameron wanting to move Iain Duncan Smith but the incumbent refusing to budge. The biggest casualty has been the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, whose many woeful performances have no doubt contributed to his demise. Surprisingly, Lansley's former department is to be taken on by Jeremy Hunt, a man with some very tarnished credentials after suffering more than one embarrassment in recent months.

 

Justine Greening has lost her job in Transport probably because of her opposition to a third runway at Heathrow, and Sayeeda Warsi has finally gone from her post as co-Chairman of the Tory party after years of under-performance. Poor Greening has been demoted to International Development, hardly a role for anyone with ambition, while Warsi seems to have been given a junior ministerial post of little account.

 

It appears that women are losers overall, with Cheryl Gillan and Caroline Spelman also losing their jobs, although Theresa Villiers has taken on the poisoned chalice that is Northern Ireland and Maria Miller (whoever she is) has replaced Jeremy Hunt as Culture Secretary.

 

The oldest stager, Ken Clarke, has found himself shunted out of Justice but given a roving role as Minister without Portfolio, remaining in the cabinet as a special adviser; one wonders if this is really what Cameron wanted or whether Clarke is simply too much of a loose canon to send him to the back benches. Clarke's old job at Justice has gone to Chris Grayling, a man whose charisma probably matches his name.

 

While the reshuffle has been principally about Tory ministers, the LibDems are also reported to have made a change with David Laws being brought back as a junior Education minister in place of the egregious Sarah Teather. Laws, of course, was forced to resign from the Government within days of being appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2010, after revelations about his highly suspect expenses claims. Inevitably, all is now forgiven and his career is well on the way to being resurrected. Exactly what Teather's ever done, other than make a dreadful fool of herself at a LibDem conference, is a bit of a mystery but I doubt many will be sorry to see her go.

 

Whether or not all this shuffling around will achieve anything is anyone's guess, though I doubt it. It does allow for some previously entrenched positions to be unpicked, particularly in Health, Transport and Justice, but we probably won't see much benefit whatever is done, or undone. This reshuffle was much more about the Conservative Party positioning itself in readiness for the election in 2015 than anything else, something which is probably a total waste of time.