Truss Cabinet - No, No, No, No, No

Tory leadership favourite Liz Truss likes to ape Mrs T., so perhaps she will understand (eventually, after someone has explained it to her) one of her heroine’s best-known Dispatch Box utterings. So sure is her camp of following alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson into 10 Downing Street, the first Truss cabinet is being assembled.

Or rather, that is what Tim Shipman, political editor of the Murdoch Sunday Times, has told us. And on the assumption that Shippers is not shipping too much bull this time, the list of names and their prospective roles brings one message loud and clear: if you thought some of Bozo’s cabinet choices were bad, Ms Truss wants you to hold her beer. Lower that bar!

And before considering the breadth and depth of talent on offer, or the lack of it, one question enters: what about those names that are not one of Ms Truss’ cabinet picks? Where’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak? Where is her fellow leadership challenger Penny Mordaunt? The answer is that they’re not. They would, presumably, join Bozo on the back benches.

Worse, another question soon follows: why has Said Javid been pencilled in as Northern Ireland Secretary? Or, indeed, Tom Tugendhat as Security minister? They should be early choices for the great offices of state, but instead, we see James Cleverly at thee FO (Tugendhat would be a far better choice) and Suella Braverman, yes, Suella Braverman, at the Home Office.

Javid would be a far steadier pair of hands. He would also have the advantage of not tending to turn everything into a Culture War issue. Whatever the question, Suella Braverman is not the answer. And, talking of which, we come to the apparent retention as Culture Secretary of (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries. Because she’s been such a success already.

So the Tories will carry on with selling off Channel 4, because one of its presenters, in an off-duty moment, made a disobliging comment about them. And MPs like John Nicolson can look forward to his committee questioning of Ms Dorries being met by a thinly veiled barrage of personal abuse.

But Ms Truss is keen on promoting business, so she has pencilled in as the new Business Secretary … Jacob Rees Mogg. Seriously. Because he’s been such a … see under Nadine Dorries. And while Kwasi Kwarteng might be a reasonably safe choice as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to nominate Chris Philp as his deputy … that might not be the wisest of choices.

What also looks less than wise is Therese Coffey as Secretary of State for Health, although this pales into insignificance when put alongside a recall to the front bench for Iain Duncan Cough as Leader of the Commons. At least one of those choices has relevant experience: Brandon Lewis, putative Justice Secretary, has worked as a barrister, having taken two law degrees and then having been called to the bar at Middle Temple, no less.

So he might be a half decent choice. But the overall impression is one of resignation and despair, that the next cabinet is set to deploy not just very little talent, but very little of the very little talent that the Tory Party has within its ranks. The back benches will have not just Sunak and Ms Mordaunt, but also two former Prime Ministers: a recipe for disquiet and plotting.

And all the while, the real issues - increased food prices, rocketing energy prices, the UK’s relationship with the EU, a lack of that much-vaunted “levelling up”, chronically low productivity, and the NHS under increasing strain - remain unaddressed, the Tories and their pals in our free and fearless press instead deflecting with Culture War nonsense and Sleb trivia.

It looks increasingly like downhill all the way. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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