Reshuffles, reorganisations, investigations – the Director General of the Propriety and Ethics Team in the Cabinet Office is always in on the action.
The Mercers, Tugendhats and Cleverlys get a lot of media coverage. However, most promotions come from the ranks of the toiling Ministers of State.
In the best of all worlds, standards would be upheld voluntarily. But in the world we have, we seem to need rules – and sometimes to extend them.
“If you’re innocent, you have nothing to worry about, let the process take its natural course and the right will come out in the end.”
Such frivolous considerations as entertaining the spectators play no part in the Prime Minister’s defensive technique.
All credit to her. She’s the first prime minister since Tony Blair to do one phone-in outside an election period. They always carry a slight risk for a politician.
Plus: Johnson’s cunning plan. Crisis? What crisis? Paterson breaks into German. And when Green was chucked over a bridge.
If the Conservative Party can be saved by good-humoured moderation, the First Secretary of State will provide it.
We pick out five items from it which may be of special interest to our readers and others who will attend.
May needs to demonstrate that Whitehall is prepared – deal or no deal. Crossing one’s fingers and hoping for transition is not an alternative, or shouldn’t be.