Rishi’s reshuffle: new labels, new bosses, same old mess?

Trade has been taken back into business (as it was when I worked there in 2016) and Energy is a separate department (again, as it was in 2016). But does all this deckchair shuffling fundamentally change anything, asks Salma Shah

There is of course an internal logic to these changes; it’s just not obvious what they are externally (AP)

What was tipped to be a smallish reshuffle, replacing the protracted and painful loss of a party chairman, turned out to be a full blown reorganisation of government. Four new departments have been created (which has to be a record): Energy Security and Net Zero, Science Innovation and Technology, a souped up Business and Trade department, and a toned down Culture one.

The chopping and changing of departments is a favoured pastime of what I like to call the “tweakerati”: those making bold symbolic gestures, showcasing the things they care about and renaming departments to be clear they mean business, via the medium of aesthetic tweaking.

But all this machinery of government change (as it’s officially known) is, in my opinion, an erroneous move. The last thing anyone needs is a fight over hotdesking space and a self-appointed design committee trying to work out the best letterhead for their new department.