Sacked minister suggests making government messier – and better

After every reshuffle, sacked ministers choose to tread a number of different paths. Some go rogue, either to the extent that Tim Loughton has since losing his job last year, or at least in publicly criticising their party’s policy, as Jeremy Browne has since being sacked in this year’s round. Others go to ground, receive appreciative applause in the Chamber when they ask very anodyne questions about the local incinerator in their constituency, but don’t bother their former bosses. And a very small number decide to offer some quiet thoughts on how things might be better.

Sacked housing minister Mark Prisk seems to have gone down the third route. I wrote recently about the circumstances surrounding his move, but instead of staying as livid as colleagues reported him to be, he has written a piece for ConservativeHome in which he says ‘that’s politics’ and decides to offer some thoughts on how the Commons has changed – but ministers haven’t caught up.