All change | 6 September 2012

All government reshuffles tend to be presented as Greek tragedies; the coverage focuses on the demeanour of sacked and promoted ministers who troop to No. 10. But this week’s reshuffle will come to be remembered less for the personnel changes, and more for the defeat of various bad ideas which characterised David Cameron’s early years as Conservative party leader. The Prime Minister’s original remodelling of the Conservative image was built around environmentalism: his was going to be the ‘greenest government ever’. In taking a sleigh ride in Svalbard he staged one of the most expensive (and, ironically, energy-consuming) political photo shoots in history. He ruled out new runways in the south-east and whipped Conservative MPs to vote for the Climate Change Act, which commits Britain unilaterally to cutting carbon emissions by a ludicrous 80 per cent by 2050. Government has taught him that such targets slow growth and compound poverty.