The cabinet reshuffle put in place by Cameron, and presumably aided and abetted by Lynton Crosby his advisor, has thrown up some unexpected moves and effective sackings. Unexpected that is, if you were of the opinion that true Conservatives should be standing up to ideologues in the education sector who are perpetually opposed to the notion that schools should be free to pursue excellence. Unexpected also, if you believe that the department head of DEFRA who stood out as being rational, practical and clear sighted has now been deprived of any position whatsoever, and been replaced with someone with no particular association with the purpose of that department.
Michael Gove took on the teaching unions, the education pundits, and the ‘blob’, with his support for independence in schools. His reward is to be moved to Chief Whip, an important post, but before his reforms could be put in place. Also, Gove’s move comes very close after a strike in the teaching unions, which might be misconstrued as a fearful response to the Conservatives having to take on the unions again.
Owen Paterson, who has been quietly gaining success at DEFRA, including his handling of the flooding of the Somerset levels, is to be replaced by Elizabeth Truss. She is the MP for South West Norfolk and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education. First elected in 2010.
Christopher Booker of the Telegraph has this to say in praise of Paterson:
The real unsung hero of this story has been our Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, who had already come down to Somerset in January, for private briefings from some key local experts, notably a team from the Royal Bath & West agricultural society. Having impressed them with his practical grasp of the issues, Paterson within 16 hours drew up a “20-year action plan”, to do all that was needed to avert any repeat of our recent flooding disasters.
This was centred on dredging the rivers that had been allowed to silt up; the setting up of a properly funded Somerset Rivers Board, uniting local councils, experts and farmers with the Environment Agency to bring the Levels back under proper management; and a “barrage” to prevent silt being washed back up the main drainage river by the second-highest tides in the world.
Since then Paterson has kept a close eye on all that was happening, and when he visited yet again last week he was cheered to learn what real progress is being made on all sides.
Owen Paterson also had a robust opposition to industrial windturbine installations in the countryside, a view which put him at odds with the greens and the head of DECC, Ed Davey. It is a very great pity that Cameron could not reshuffle the LibDem part of his cabinet. The one person who almightily deserves sacking for his egregiously facile support for renewables, despite the glaringly obvious evidence against them, is Ed Davey. Cameron has eviscerated his own party of its talent, leaving the LibDems, the worst party of this coalition, supremely untouched.
Photo by PeacockArmageddon 
In all of this it must be remembered that the new appointments will only be in place until the May 2015 election, and then may change depending on election results, or wnatever has changed politically in the meantime. Also assuming that Cameron wins….
Elzabeth Truss is an unknown on matters related to climate change, but has stated her opposition to solar and wind turbines on farmland. She has a PPE degree from Oxford, and apart from being a welcome female addition to the Cabinet, there is otherwise little to distinguish her from the greater coterie of Oxbridge PPEs who dominate the higher ranks of politics.
Here in the East the only other changes were that Suffolk Coastal’s Therese Coffey joined the Whips office, and West Suffolk’s Matt Hancock became Minister of State for Business & Skills, and attending Cabinet.
Matt Hancock was Minister for Business & Skills, He’s now at Energy replacing Barker.
Surely even the dimmest Tories have seen through Scameron by now.
Funny, during all the reporting of the cabinet reshuffle, not a dicky bird from nonentity Nick.
An absolute joke of a reshuffle. Cameron acting out of naked party political self-interest, rather than what the country needs by appointing who is best for the job. Cameron’s advisors have focus-grouped that the Tories have a “women problem”, and this is the all too predictable and woefully inadequate response. As with gay marriage, he’s desperately trying to win over voters that wouldn’t vote Tory with a gun held to their heads. Ability and merit over whatever reproductive organs someone happens to be born with please,
This government had only two things going for it, IDS’ welfare reforms and Gove’s principled and tenacious reforms to drive up standards in schools. WIth Gove gone, there’s one less reason to vote Tory.
Liz Truss is my MP. Having been in a meeting that she chaired, I’m not surprised she has climbed the greasy pole quickly (not meant as a compliment). Not remotely qualified for DEFRA of course, but hey, she’s from a rural constituency so that will probably do.
As for the new cabinet being eurosceptic, there’s no such thing as a eurosceptic Tory. They either go native in power, or enable the pro-EU Tory leadership to keep their party together, con the electorate, and happily continue with EU integration.