On Rearranging Deckchairs

Nothing gets the juices moving more than indulging in irrelevancies. A category that now, arguably, covers our old friend the Conservative Party. For there has been news this weekend as this nothing struggles to become something again. Kemi Badenoch has undertaken a major reshuffle of the shadow cabinet. And this was prefaced by news that James Cleverly was binning off the front bench to concentrate on a run for the London mayoralty in 2028. The departures of Priti Patel and Mel Stride aren't great losses to the Conservative cause. It's been frequently noted by Tory watchers that Patel has led a charmed political life throughout her career, one of those characters who gets promoted and is kept hanging around simply because she's available. Bringing a deft touch of ignorance and arrogance to whatever role the party's power brokers have handed her, she peaked during the Boris Johnson years as his home secretary. The wretched Rwanda scheme was her baby, and she normalised the…