Politics

This might, on the face of it, seem an outrageous thing to say, but I think it’s a shame that Diane Abbott has been booted out of her role as Shadow Health Minister by Miliband II.  Much though she can rile with all that whining victim business, not to mention the occasional spurt of hilarious hypocrisy, she is one of Labour’s more formidable speakers and is easily the most accomplished black politician the country has, Chuka notwithstanding. She also, when not being hypocritical, tends to act out of principle, even if it is not usually a principle with which many of you lot would agree. Her policy instincts are usually

It’s been a mixed day for two of the pushiest MPs of the 2010 intake. Widely tipped for great things (usually by himself), Tory Matt Hancock has climbed another step of the ladder by becoming a minister of state. The former Osborne apparatchik has been appointed Minister for Enterprise, which may reflect his enterprising spirit. Asked recently where he got his ghastly watch (pictured above), Hancock replied: ‘from a pawn shop’. How very ‘in touch’. No such luck for Hancock’s ambitious equivalent on the Labour benches. Stella Creasy was expected to be promoted to the Shadow Cabinet. Some of her colleagues will be celebrating the fact she has missed out:

There are two more government resignations ahead of tonight’s reshuffle. John Randall, the deputy chief whip, has gone as has Chloe Smith, the Cabinet Office minister. Randall’s retirement has been overdue for a while now in the opinion of many in Downing Street. There is irritation at the way he put pressure on David Cameron to get rid of Andrew Mitchell during the plebgate affair. His departure and the expected elevation of several whips—Nicky Morgan and Karen Bradley are both in line for promotion—paves the way for a freshening up of the whips’ office. Chloe Smith quitting is going to tempt everyone to dust off the footage of that Paxman

Like so many pundits before me, I had earnestly hoped never to begin a piece on coalitions by quoting Disraeli.  But since I was asked by Bright Blue and the Electoral Reform Society to join Mrs Bone’s husband, as well as Ms Hardman and Mr Oborne of this parish, on the Tory fringe in Manchester to discuss whether the country would ever love coalitions, it has sadly proved unavoidable.  I can only apologise. My answer to the question, in case you were interested, was that England might not learn to love coalitions but that, like Scotland and Wales before it, it has very quickly come to accept them and that,