Parliamentary party management is, perhaps, the subtlest of the political arts. It is,
obviously, particularly difficult in coalition. But the Cameroons are still scoring a ‘must do better’ grade on this work.
The mini reshuffle was fairly neatly executed. But it has, almost inevitably, left behind some bruised feelings.
Part of the problem is that the Whips’ office is, to borrow a phrase, neither Sandhurst nor a proper careers’ department. Ministers and MPs are all too often left to guess at why they have been passed over for promotion.
There is also a tendency for people to be rapidly promoted and then fall out of favour almost as suddenly. Theresa Villiers, for example, was one of only two members of the 2005 intake to make it into David Cameron’s first
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