In a nice piece of constitutional give-and-take, a more loyal minister-class makes for a potentially more troublesome set of Tory Select Committee chairmen.
Lessons endure from my polling study of our new Prime Minister, carried out six years ago when he was London’s Mayor.
One could sense Labour MPs, and some Tory ones too, grasping that “everything is changing”.
We have the Government that we should have had then, ready to counter the charge that Vote Leave scurried away from Brexit, rather than manning up to deliver it.
The key to promotion in this shuffle wasn’t primarily having backed Leave – it was supporting Johnson.
We can now see the new Government taking shape, after a dramatic bout of sackings and new appointments at the top.
There are all these ghastly photos of them hugging passers by and avoiding difficult questions.
“We’ll be delivering pilots to see how curriculum resources, teacher training or workshops with pupils and parents can challenge expectations and attitudes.”
Other candidates for the top job gain ground – but not all do so. Meanwhile, the Cabinet’s collective approval rating rises somewhat as May’s departure approaches.
The traditional media environment for Conservatives has deteriorated significantly, while social media encourages egomaniacs and the loudmouths.
Its members must be signed up to leaving on October 31. Here’s a rough draft of what the top team might look like.
The Conservative Party’s version of Candide contrasted with the stiff, decent voice of the Establishment.
Also: don’t cut members out of the contest. And the right exam question for candidates is: who can best win a general election?
He is set to cakewalk this contest if his colleagues in the Commons put his name before the members.
The vocation of the front-runner is not to mess up. And he hasn’t. Indeed, he has picked up support – and upped the pace.