From our UK edition
Mr S was sipping his breakfast tea when he saw this plea from deposed Cabinet minister Owen Paterson: I’m looking for someone to run my new office, but I seem to have lost Dominic Cummings's phone number. Can anyone help? — Owen Paterson MP (@Owen_PatersonMP) July 21, 2014 Cameroons need not apply.
From our UK edition
It is the Sunday after the reshuffle before. Today’s papers are brimming with post reshuffle stories; and not of the kind that Downing Street will like. The Mail on Sunday reveals that Philip Hammond demanded an assurance that he wouldn’t just be keeping the seat warm for George Osborne at the Foreign Office. While the Sunday Times reports on how Owen Paterson and Liam Fox plan to ‘rough up’ the Prime Minister over Europe. The animosity of the right towards Cameron is, perhaps, to be expected. But one of the most striking things about the reshuffle is that it has severed the emotional bonds between Cameron and the modernisers who propelled him to power.
From our UK edition
Key eurosceptic MPs are planning to push David Cameron further on his plans for European reform next week, Coffee House has learned. Leading members of a powerful group of right-wing Conservative MPs, who meet regularly to discuss strategy, will call on the Prime Minister to set out more detail on giving power back to Parliament and his plans for reform. 'The ECHR isn't enough,' says one source. 'We need to hear more detail from the Prime Minister and we will ask for that as soon as next week.
From our UK edition
There are two reasons why David Cameron’s cull of the ‘Uglies’ – the Conservative ministers who don’t perform well on camera – had to be so vast. The first is that the Tories need an unprecedented increase in support in order to secure an outright majority – but they have a weak brand that doesn’t appeal to the electorate. With the exception of David Cameron, Tories don’t appeal to the public – because they don’t look like them. That’s something that couldn’t have be fixed with a little light pruning, lopping off just one or two grey-haired junior ministers. The second is that Cameron needed new, different faces to take advantage of Labour’s vulnerabilities.
From our UK edition
I tried to reach Michael Gove on Tuesday shortly after the news broke that he’d been moved to the Whips’ Office. I’m quite relieved he never called back, because my intention was to offer my condolences, never a good idea when a friend suffers a setback. I know from experience that any expression of pity when some calamity befalls you only makes it ten times worse. ‘Oh Christ,’ you think. ‘Is it really that bad?’ In Gove’s case, I don’t think it is. He achieved more in his four years as Education Secretary than his predecessors did in 40. Given the hostility of the education establishment to even the mildest of reforms, it’s remarkable he lasted that long.
From our UK edition
[audioplayer src="http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_17_July_2014_v4.mp3" title="Charles Moore and Fraser Nelson discuss the reshuffle" startat=851] Listen [/audioplayer]This must be the worst reshuffle since Mrs Thatcher demoted Geoffrey Howe in 1989. Unlike that one, its errors are unforced. This year, David Cameron had established a surprisingly strong position as the leader whose unpopular but necessary policies were starting to work. He and his team seemed steadier and more able than their opponents. Now he has thrown that away with changes so large that he looks as if he disrespects what he has achieved.
From our UK edition
I don’t know if David Cameron was trying to tell us something about Michael Gove’s prospects as chief whip by comparing him to the Hand of the King in Game of Thrones. Things don’t really turn out very well for the hands, generally; Jon Arryn was poisoned, Ned Stark was beheaded, Tyrion ended up in prison and Tywin, well, I wouldn’t want to spoil anything for people still catching up. Neither can we know if the prime minister is really a fan of the show or referencing it was simply another focus group-led thing, like moving Michael Gove out of education and bringing in lots of women.
From our UK edition
‘There’s no shame in a cabinet to win the next election,’ declared an exasperated senior No. 10 figure on Tuesday night. This week’s reshuffle was not one for the purists: it was designed with campaigning, not governing, in mind. With less than ten months to go to polling day, politics trumps policy. This is why Michael Gove is moving from the Department for Education to become Chief Whip. The test of this shake-up will be whether the Tories win the next election or not. This reshuffle demonstrated that Tory modernisation is not about measures anymore but men — and women.
From our UK edition
It was the final PMQs before the sun-stroke season begins. Usually these are high-spirited Derby Day affairs and Ed Miliband came to the house knowing things could hardly be easier. A political grenade has just been lobbed into the prime minister’s bunker – by the prime minister himself. He’s sacked two of his closest allies (and Ken Clarke). He’s fatally weakened himself in Europe by sending Lord Nobody to Brussels. And he’s surrendered to hypocritical calculation by stuffing his cabinet with skirt. Cameron the radical feminist? The silliest pose he’s ever adopted. Miliband began by striking a note that he does particularly well: low-key, gloating irony.
From our UK edition
David Cameron cut his political teeth on the 1992 election campaign. He has long told colleagues that he think 2015 will be a very similar election to 1992. Today he seized on what the Tories see as this cycle's Labour 'tax bombshell'. He gleefully read out this quote from Harriet Harman: 'I think people on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes'. Now, the quote in context is far less damaging than it initially appears. Harman appears to be defending progressive taxation as a concept rather than proposing any new taxes. But Ed Miliband appeared blindsided by the quote and the result was Cameron strolling through the session. listen to ‘PMQs: Why did Cameron sack Gove?
From our UK edition
Well, Michael Gove's wife, Sarah Vine, has made her views clear: tweeting that the reshuffle was 'a shabby day's work which Cameron will live to regret'. Crikey. Talk about ‘stand by your man’: A shabby day's work which Cameron will live to regret http://t.co/M9SN100PE1 via @MailOnline — Sarah Vine (@SarahVine) July 16, 2014 Should Vine be turning her ire on Lynton Crosby? It was Crosby, so the story goes, who forced Gove out after concluding that his polling numbers were irredeemable. The move has created the greatest conundrum of the generally pretty perplexing reshuffle. If the new Chief Whip polls so terribly, why has he been asked to prosecute the election air war?
From our UK edition
This must be the worst reshuffle since Mrs Thatcher demoted Geoffrey Howe in 1989. Unlike that one, its errors are unforced. This year, David Cameron had established a surprisingly strong position as the leader whose unpopular but necessary policies were starting to work. He and his team seemed steadier and more able than their opponents. Now he has thrown that away with changes so large that he looks as if he disrespects what he has achieved. He has singled out for punishment those ministers who were brave and active — most notably Michael Gove and Owen Paterson, demoting the first and sacking the second.
From our UK edition
Today's reshuffle has been largely about cosmetic improvements to the Conservative party — not just through the promotion of female MPs, but also by neutralising certain policy areas such as education and planning reform that had antagonised some groups. But an important element in any changing of the guard is party management, and not just managing cross sacked ministers. So how has the Conservative party reacted to today's events? Naturally, all Tory MPs are as startled as everyone else by Michael Gove's departure. But it does make sense to them.
From our UK edition
Some big egos are set to join David Cameron's rubber-stamping Cabinet meetings, which will make life interesting. There is a physical problem, too. Mr S makes it 11 ministers awarded the right to attend (in addition to the 22 full Cabinet ministers) — and the reshuffle is not even complete yet. Sue Cameron reported during last year's minor ministerial tinkering: 'A 4ft-long section has been made to fit perfectly on to the coffin-shaped Cabinet table, originally commissioned by Harold Macmillan more than half a century ago. It makes the table look “more coffin-like than ever”, according to one minister.' Mr S hears that even with the extension, it was still a tight physical squeeze. Will they have to get a bigger table; or perhaps they could install a dress circle?
From our UK edition
But for Europe, eh? It is a mark of how thoroughly the European issue has poisoned Tory waters that many party activists - and MPs - will be celebrating the end of Ken Clarke's ministerial career tonight. Not before time, many of them will doubtless froth. Well, maybe. But it bears remembering that the Tories who hated Clarke the most tend, more often than not, to be the Tories the public hates most. The kind of Conservatives good at losing elections and rather less good at winning them. That does not mean Clarke was always right or that his judgement was necessarily routinely sound. Nevertheless it is something to be kept in mind. Would the Conservatives have been better or worse off these past 20 years with more or with fewer politicians like Ken Clarke?
From our UK edition
From our UK edition
The Speaker’s House hosted the launch of 'Women in Parliament', a cross-party initiative to get more women into parliament, today. Fittingly, there was barely a man in sight — besides wee John Bercow, obviously. 'Women in Parliament' is led from by Mary MacLeod — former PPS to ex-Culture Secretary Maria Miller, who is also closely involved in the project. The group has received a lukewarm reaction from Downing Street. The ambition to get more women onto the Tory benches is welcomed by No 10; but the timing of the launch has clashed with the upcoming female-focussed reshuffle. Tongues wagged at this afternoon’s event when the waiter described the menu.
From our UK edition
For all of today's reshuffle updates, including the new appointments and podcast reactions, follow our liveblog here. 23.44 That's it for tonight. We'll be back at 6am tomorrow, with more news of the reshuffle. Will Esther McVey, Liz Truss and Priti Patel become the new faces of David Cameron’s government? And will any of them much welcome the idea that this is a mission to bring more women into Westminster? Join us tomorrow to find out. 23.22 Dear John letters: The Prime Minister has written to the seven ministers who resigned. His hand will be rather sore after all of this sacking.
From our UK edition
In our latest View from 22 podcast, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the possible outcomes when Cameron reshuffles his Cabinet.
From our UK edition
What does David Cameron need his reshuffle to do? As has been the case with every reshuffle in this Parliament, the changing of the guard, which is expected to start later today (Coffee House will have a liveblog full of the action and gossip when it all kicks off), is being billed as a 'reshuffle of the women'. But as I explained in my post last night about the Prime Minister considering voluntary all-women shortlists, even the incredibly talented crop of female Conservative MPs can't stop Labour billing any shuffle as a disappointment for women, which it is ready doing before any jobs have changed hands. Cameron also needs to shore up his relations with the Eurosceptic right wing of his party.