Provided you remember a few simple rules the Expectations Game should be the easiest test to pass in politics. It is not complicated: under-promise and over-deliver. Or, more succinctly, never hype anything.
So only fools trail a cabinet reshuffle with the suggestion it will be some kind of transformational shot-in-the-arm for the government. First, doing so concedes that your government is not doing very well at present (otherwise there’d be no need for the reshuffle); second it all-but-demands the press responds to the reshuffle with extra vinegar and cynicism. Is this it? Blimey.
Better by far to promise little and actually clear the bar you’ve set at a modest level for yourself. Perhaps that’s not clever or cute enough for this government but, to the extent reshuffles matter at all, this one seems unduly confused. But how could it ever be otherwise when there’s no change at any of the great offices of state? Some observations:
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