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GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.321.
I hope you all had a brilliant summer. Last week the Hunt children returned to school via two slightly frazzled parents. And then straight back to Westminster politics with the government nearly imploding at the end of last week…which is actually not good news for any of us as it is our government!
WESTMINSTER WHISPERS
CABINET MUSICAL CHAIRS On Friday, we witnessed the largest government reshuffle to-date since the election, forced by the resignation of Angela Rayner. Many of us felt for someone who has been trying to juggle politics with a disabled child but sympathy was tempered by the regular no-holes barred attacks she herself had made on others for much lesser offences. For Keir Starmer it was problematic - to say the least - having promised to ‘end the era of noisy performance’ and a politics that ‘treads more lightly on your lives.’ In truth governments of all persuasions have such moments and the fundamental issue is deeper: a year ago the PM clearly thought that replacing Tory drama with technocratic government would be enough. If that was delivering - for example - economic growth or an end to the small boats, he might have had an argument. But without tangible progress - indeed we seem to be going backwards - people are losing hope. As former First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathan Band said ‘hope is the first duty of command.’ I hope the PM is listening...
ALL OF WHICH COULD BE AWKWARD for President Trump’s state visit next week. I don’t agree with the President on Ukraine, on tariffs and on his general admiration for autocrats. But in just eight months (five less than Sir Keir) he has cut illegal migration by over 90%, seen inflation fall and made Western Europe cough up on defence - pretty major achievements which he will no doubt find a moment to talk about. But isn’t the thing British politicians most need to learn from him - galling though it may be - is his mastery of TV and social media? I talk about this in two interviews with Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell for The Rest is Politics where we covered the economy, the future of the Conservative and Labour parties and my rather unexpected elevation to Chancellor..
MEANWHILE THE WORLD CARRIES ON… Last week, China held its first military parade since the pandemic as part of the 2025 China Victory Day Parade, with both Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in attendance. China used the occasion to show off its new military tech, including new bombers, underwater drones, lasers and hypersonic missiles. If President Xi was trying to scare us, seeing him lined up with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin rather had the opposite effect on most people I know. Nothing encapsulated the difference between theirs and our values than those pictures beamed around the world. If we were asleep at the wheel before, we certainly aren’t now.
LOCAL LIFE
THESE MOBILE PHONE MEETINGS NEVER SEEM TO END I am now on my 4th round of meetings with the mobile phone operators to sort out our lousy reception. Thank you to O2 for discussing their plans for improving mobile phone signal across Godalming and Ash. This follows my bumper survey data which, together with 02, we are using to cross reference with their improvement plan to ensure no gap is left unfilled. I do actually think we are making progress.
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