Reshuffle in haste, repent at leisure. I suspect that will be what people conclude about Keir Starmer’s reshuffle. It bore all the hallmarks of being scribbled on the back of a fag packet.
If you’re going to relaunch your government (for the fourth time in little over a year) at least take the time to plan it properly and make sure that people can see the logic of it? I could write 1,000 words on why it’s unlikely to have any material effect and in the end could end up making things worse, but I will restrict myself to a few comments.
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Can anyone explain why you would move Johnny Reynolds, one of the better media performers, from a front line job at Business and Trade to being Chief Whip, where by definition you don’t appear on the media? Nope, me neither. And you then move the chief whip, Alan Campbell, who was apparently doing a good job, to be Leader of the House, a job where you’re expected to go on the media and take flak for the government. God knows what Lucy Powell did to deserve to be sacked, but going into bad on a sticky wicket was something she was good at. You then reward Yvette Cooper for failure by moving her to the plum job of Foreign Secretary, and piss of David Lammy by doing a Dominic Raab and try to placate him with the more junior job of Justice Minister. Shabana Mahmood had performed well in that role, but yet again a Justice Secretary is moved after only a year. I could go on…
I got a text from a former Labour MP yesterday informing me the biography of Nigel Farage, FIGHTING BULL, that I published in 2010 was now listed at £244 on Amazon. There’s only one copy left, so don’t all rush at once.
It was in the early days of Biteback and I remember getting dog’s abuse for publishing it, but I just knew Farage was going to be a political star of the future. I wasn’t wrong, was I? He dominates the political agenda at the moment, and there was a good example this week, when I listened to Matt Stadlen’s 20 SECONDS WITH… podcast, where he interviewed Steve Richards about his new biography of Tony Blair. Yet they spent half of the interview talking about Farage.
The LibDems are whinging that they’re not getting enough coverage in the media. Zack Polanski has learned how to attract media coverage without doing silly media stunts. He’s taken a leaf out of the Farage playbook. Maybe it’s about time Ed Davey did the same.
My friend Phil Hendren, who used to write the Dizzythinks blog back in the day, has started a new Substack. He was one of my must-reads due to his brilliant sense of humour, incisive political commentary and knowledge of all things teccy. DO check him out at dizzythinks.substack.com
Many people have sought to dismiss Nadine Dorries’s defection to Reform as something of no consequence. They could not be more wrong. She’s a former cabinet minister and as such, her defection cannot just be dismissed by Conservatives. Their worst nightmare is that there is another high profile defection on the eve of their conference. Jacob Rees-Mogg has made clear he’s staying put and has urged others to do so as well. A lot of people have been impressed by the staging of the Reform conference, and rightly so, but they made some elementary mistakes, not least by giving a platform to an antivax conspiracy theorist, and hosting an on stage ‘martyr’ like interview with Lucy Connolly. If you’re a serious political party and are interested in attracting support from frustrated voters across the political spectrum, you don’t do things like that. And you don’t have a party leader who goes to the US and urges Trump to impose sanctions on your own country due to a supposed North Korea like free speech inclinations of the current government. And then Andrea Jenkyns screeches out God Save the Queen, rather than the King. You really couldn’t make it up. The party of patriotism. Hilarious.
What on earth is going on in Coronation Street? Has it moved location to perch itself alongside Canal Street for having the highest density of gays in the country? Every second character seems to be gay or lesbian. The latest plot twist has Kevin Websters bed-hopping brother jump into bed with the black personal trainer James. Well that came out of nowhere, so to speak. The next thing you know, Rita will be jumping into bed with Audrey. Now there’s an image to brighten up your Sunday evenings. It’s just occurred to me that there are so few characters nowadays in Coronation Street who are over the age of 60. Apart from occasional appearances from Rita, Audrey and Ken Barlow they’ve all been written out. Given the youthful cast and the multiple gay story lines you could be forgiven for thinking Coronation Street is morphing into Hollyoaks.