The Tories have no right talking about ‘common sense’

Esther McVey is minister without portfolio in the current cabinet, but has been dubbed the ‘minister for common sense’. In this capacity she made a characteristically half-baked, half-thought-through address earlier this week. There is apparently to be no more spending on external equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) contracts without explicit sign-off from a minister, and no more EDI-focused Whitehall jobs outside human resources.

This is the latest minor spectacle in the death throes of this clapped-out government. It’s taken them 14 years to notice that they’ve been utterly useless. This supposed stern crackdown is an admission that all of this harmful claptrap has ripped through the institutions, virtually unopposed, during their time in office. Minister for common sense? McVey is more minister for stable doors, the shutting of.

Sending an erstwhile GB News presenter out to wind up progressives with vague talk of common sense feels pathetically perfunctory from the Tories – as if they can corral their lost ‘gammon’ voters with a few scraps of cold red meat.