Many ministers are indeed well-suited – but it feels as if this is a secondary consideration: just check their CVs, and ask if we might sometimes choose better.
Simply pointing to our two female Prime Ministers does not deliver true meritocracy or equal representation.
Discussion of immigration is often dominated by those who are entirely ‘pro’ or ‘anti’, but most people are somewhere in between.
People did not feel committed to their current party. The next election was, they hoped, a long way away, by which time much could have changed.
People will not accept any arrangement that isn’t funded through the tax system and free at the point of use. So we have to find a way of making the current model work.
The reshuffle showed just how far BME Conservatives have come since I first joined the Party, but we have much farther still to go.
The crucial point is that consumers will be fully informed of how much something will cost before they get to the very end of the checkout process.
Constituency parties can be so much more than cogs in the national machine – let’s empower them to play their part tackling local problems and poverty.
But unless his fully-developed vision of the future can capture heart-and-minds, I’d expect control of the party to stay with the mainstream.
Transport for the North can now set its own priorities and make its own plans – but Westminster must devolve more powers to allow it to reach its full potential.
Given Brexit, limited parliamentary time and a hung parliament, one priority is to demonstrate how leaving the EU will create specific opportunities for Britain.
Since I last surveyed the political landscape in 2013 and 2014, some ruling tribes have been cast down, and some formerly lost tribes have risen to rule.
Political parties and online computer games are not the same, but one sector is seeing massive year on year growth and the other, quite frankly, isn’t.
There is no other Party for people who believe in our country, welcome freedom, value meritocracy, and want to live in a society where hard work is rewarded.
Among seven-year-olds in 2012, 24 per cent of free school meal recipients did not reach the expected level in reading, versus 10 per cent of their better off peers.