Congratulations to Chris Grayling following his appointment as Conservative party chairman.

[Jeff Kuta]

LOL

[Jamiet99uk]

Well done, Chris.

Hahahahaha.

[Octavious]

Out of curiosity, do you genuinely find this hilarious or our you laughing out of a sense of duty to the left?

I think the biggest story here is the stunning revelation that the Tory Twitter account is followed by over 300,000 people! You can get to roughly 50,000 if you count journalists, politicians, and Tory members with a basic understanding of the internet, but who the hell are the other quarter million?

I reckon at least half of them are Momentum

[Jeff Kuta]

I am amused by unforced errors.

Do the Conservatives fancy themselves to be competent professionals?

[Jamiet99uk]

I actually laughed, Octavious.

It gave me a moment of distraction from trying to balance my department's budget without cutting anything people might care about.

[Octavious]

I am amused by unforced errors.

Do the Conservatives fancy themselves to be competent professionals?

I'd say that the vast majority of British MPs are competent professionals. None of whom are immune from employing staff who make errors, nor indeed from making errors themselves.

[Deeply_Dippy]

I agree, Octavious, the majority of British MP's are indeed competent professionals...

Unfortunately, they then gave up their professions and joined Parliament!

[Hellenic Riot]

It was mildly amusing. Though bemusement at how Jeremy Hunt managed to talk his way out of fired and instead have social care *added* to his brief, when this reshuffle seemed to be entirely about shunting him out of Health soon took over. And then the further own-goal of getting rid of a Pro-Remain candidate in a Remain supporting marginal, who was one of the faces of the modernising faction of the Tory party in Justine Greening, and thus add an extra potential rebel with history there (Heathrow), is really the icing on the cake.

I thought the age of incompetent reshuffles had died after the Chicken Coup in Labour failed... Apparently not!

[Octavious]

What on earth gave you the idea that Hunt was going to be shunted? He's got the safest job in politics. And, quite seriously, adding social care to health is long overdue. It's harder to save money in social care by dumping the costs on the NHS when they're both the same budget.

[Jamiet99uk]

And, quite seriously, adding social care to health is long overdue. It's harder to save money in social care by dumping the costs on the NHS when they're both the same budget.

I probably agree with this point.

Interesting change of direction, since the policy of the Cameron government was to take responsibilities away from the NHS and transfer them to local authorities (while only transferring *some* of the money to their budgets).

[Octavious]

And, quite seriously, adding social care to health is long overdue. It's harder to save money in social care by dumping the costs on the NHS when they're both the same budget.

I probably agree with this point.

Interesting change of direction, since the policy of the Cameron government was to take responsibilities away from the NHS and transfer them to local authorities (while only transferring *some* of the money to their budgets).

There's a lot to be said for localism. In different circumstances it may well have worked, but with budgets the way they were the holistic view suffered at the expense of departmental necessity. As things stand, bringing the services together seems the right call. In five or ten years time, who knows?