Politics is still in its musical chairs era.
Everyone in the Tory party seems to be trying to do the simple job of ‘leading a literal country’. Every time Britain is given to a new Tory, they bring in another team to handle other middle-management tasks like fixing the economy or dealing with crime. It’s nothing major.
Yes, our words are filled with sarcasm. It would be nice to have some consistency. But that is not what we have been dealt. Instead, we report on an endless loop of cabinets that are being rebuilt into new cabinets. We have seen many more cabinets than a moving company. We’re tired.
However, the Tories announced that Rishi Sunak would be playing with the country’s toy this week. He was keen to try it out in September, but Liz Truss was also interested. He’s now the prime minister. Yesterday he named his new team. He got rid of many of Truss’s key supporters, brought back some of her friends Boris Johnson, and brought in some new players.
Are they up-to-standard? Do they have the right skills? Is there an existential crisis in our country? Aren’t you?
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Take three deep inhalations, then take out any remaining enamel from our teeth grinding, then proceed to rate Sunak’s cabinet.
Jeremy Hunt, chancellor, 5/10
Hunt is faced with a very difficult problem: the economy. Kwasi Kwarteng’s former health secretary assumed control last week. Hunt quietly undid most Truss’s economic plans, hinting that department cuts could be possible in the future
Hunt is to be commended for settling the volatile markets, but we are afraid of the return to austerity.
Another thought: When Hunt was elected, many saw him as de facto prime minster, with Truss as an incompetent figurehead. Sunak was the chancellor in the past and might be tempted to interfere with Hunt’s task.
It will be fascinating to see how the dynamic between the two of them changes over the coming weeks.
Penny Mordaunt is the leader of the commons. 7/10
Mordaunt voted against Sunak in the first leadership contest. He came in second and third, respectively. In the second contest, he received 90 nominations from fellow MPs.
Her primary role is to organize government business. We don’t see this happening too often since she seems respected in her party.
However, she also made some gaffes when she was running for the leadership of her party. She used odd statistics and diddgy videos so maybe her admin skills are lacking.
Dominic Raab (Deputy PM and Justice Secretary), 2/10
Truss fired Raab, who had held these positions under Johnson. He now controversially rises from the ashes, complete with his worrying Bill of Rights and worrying attitude.
Raab refused the Criminal Bar Association’s (CBA), for talks during the barrister’s strike this year. He was also unable to meet with the CBA when he was foreign secretary.
We don’t trust him.
Suella Braverman, home secretary, 0/10
Six days ago she resigned as Truss’s secretary of state because she violated the ministerial codes by sending “sensitive”Information from government agencies to the wrong person, and her email address.
She is very hard on migration, and she has stated that it is her. “dream”Rwandan deportation flights are scheduled for the future
She can’t even communicate a rational message about government policy, regardless of your opinion. Instead, she uses commonsense appearances to vent about people who like tofu.
Suella Braverman, a politician who is less qualified for a ministerial role than any other?
Environment secretary, Therese Coffeey, 5/10
We want to give Coffey 10/10 because we are happy that she has been declassified. She was absolutely unfit for the job of health secretary. She had voted against the ban on children smoking in cars, and she supported ideas for antibiotics that would make them insane.
Industry figures are more comfortable with Coffey taking care to the environment since she has backed green investments and had some experience.
Shaun Spiers is chief executive at Green Alliance, an environmental thinktank. The Guardian: “Thérèse Coffey has experience at Defra, working with Michael Gove when there was a strong push to show that Britain could be greener outside the EU than as a member state. It’s good that she won’t have to start from scratch and can build on this experience to drive reform forward. In particular, as a minister in Theresa May’s government, she understood the importance of the circular economy, a policy area that has stalled since then.”
In 2018, however, she became the environment minister. She celebrated RoundUp, a controversial herbicide, in her garden via Twitter. Dr David Coombes was inspired to call the tweet “a joke”. “candidate for most inappropriate tweet of the year”.
Gillian Keegan (education secretary), 6/10
Education has been an interesting department lately. Five education ministers have been elected in the past four months. Michelle Donelan was the only minister who lasted for just two days before being replaced by many others in Johnson’s government. Simpler times.
With all the turmoil, perhaps those who are still in school will become more flexible adults capable of adapting to changing environments and overcoming life’s challenges.
However, science experiments are not something students should be doing.
You should also consider the fact the the latest member of the department’s revolving Door is someone who was a junior minister and voted against free school meals on holidays. He or she went on holiday during A Level grades crisis and appeared to have less numeracy skills than a toddler. If this interview is any indication, you have someone we would give an A+ for effort but an F for execution.
Kemi Badenoch (international trade secretary, minister for women, and equalities), 1/10
Can one person truly look after all of the international trade and women and equality? Although we all have 24 hours each day, this certainly puts limits on our abilities, no matter how efficient.
We are not just skeptical about Badenoch’s suitability, as she worked under Johnson in the equalities section. She also stood for the Tory leadership race this year on an “anti-woke”Platform and her stance regarding transgender persons have been questioned by leaked recordings, which claim that she has once called transgender women “men”A spokesperson for the government claimed that her comments were out of context. She also made a point of using gendered toilets during her campaign launch, as well as because of her emphasis on having them at her campaign launch.
Concerning international trade, Badenoch voted for Brexit and is fairly libertarian. We don’t like her work here.
She is already making waves in parliament.
These appointments don’t touch the cabinet, but they do make it look more complete. Sunak made James Cleverly the foreign secretary. He also stopped Grant Shapps’ six-days of hard work in the home office. Sunak put him in charge for business, energy, and industrial strategy (BEIS).
Nadhim Zahawi, now a minister without portfolio, sounds like someone who rebels without a cause. Mark Harper is in charge for transport. Ben Wallace is still the defence secretary, while Steve Barclay is in charge of healthcare.
Jacob Rees Mogg, who was Sunak’s ascendant to power, resigned from BEIS via a handwritten note. It was in English but his unreadable handwriting looked like Windings.
Brandon Lewis, who was also the justice secretary, resigned and Jake Berry, the party chairman, was fired.
Other key changes have occurred, but politics is still in its musical chairs era. Today’s news was once tomorrow’s fish & chip paper. It’s now this afternoon.
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