Monday’s Lesson in Ministerial Survival
I kicked off the week at the Institute for Government, attending a talk on How to Succeed as a Minister.
Rt Hon Lucy Frazer KC, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, offered a slice of honesty with her coffee, revealing that before a reshuffle, a Downing Street aide confessed that the men were actively jostling for positions they believed were rightfully theirs, while the women, it seems, were still playing by the polite rulebook of meritocracy. It’s as if the political playground has its own unspoken game: the boys still grab the football while the girls wait for it be passed to them.
Kitty Donaldson, Chief Political Commentator at The i Paper, with her usual sparkle, recalled a vivid picture of Theresa May’s Cabinet: a ship so riddled with holes, it seemed to leak on the way in, and on the way out. “It was brilliant,” Kitty Donaldson admitted, like a plumber admiring spectacularly broken pipes.
Full National Inquiry into Grooming Gangs
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has finally announced a full national inquiry into grooming gangs. It’s the right decision. Overwhelming credit here must go to GB News, who refused to let this issue drift quietly into the oubliette, where uncomfortable topics so often go to gather dust. They’ve been the persistent drip on the stone, the fly in the political ointment, the dog that wouldn’t leave the postman alone – and rightly so.
The national inquiry, however, can’t just be another footnote in another small, forgettable note in the long official record of inquiries that have been started but haven’t actually changed anything; it must deliver real justice for the victims and their families, justice that’s been delayed, ignored, and too often swept under the carpet of political correctness.
Gina Miller: From Courtrooms to Cambridge
Gina Miller is carrying on her campaign to be the next Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Miller’s approach is less cap and gown, more click and go. She’s a campaigner who has never shied away from shaking up establishment spaces, and now she’s politely tapping at Cambridge’s grand old gates with a LinkedIn post and the quiet confidence of someone who’s already succeeded in the highest courts of the land. The other candidates may still be dusting off their Latin mottos, but Miller’s already offering Q&As via her website. The game is on, and it seems Gina is running hers at broadband speed.
Agree with…
Sophia Smith Galer, who in her Linked post writes: ‘journalists and their newsroom champions must alter many of our priorities to contend with a media space where we’re being left behind’. Galer continues: ‘This DOES NOT MEAN your news publisher needs a TikTok or IG account. It means *your reporters* do’. I see far too many of my favourite journalists, newspapers and commentators surfing in the dusty, forgotten, lightless corners of an ever evolving social media landscape because their tools of reporting are not fit for purpose.
Recommended read for the week
‘Broken Threads: My Family From Empire to Independence’ by Mishal Husain, available on Amazon here.
One last point…
For tips, hate mail, feedback, advice, corrections, coffees, brunches, lunches, afternoon tea, suppers, WhatsApp details, suggestions on what I ought to have covered or what you think I should cover in the next edition – drop me a message at raza.hussain007@outlook.com
Read more here:
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- Switzerland’s Embassy celebrates its 10th Anniversary in Oman
- ‘Switzerland Tourism’ wins Digital Innovation of the Year prize at the Digital Economy Award 2024
- Two villages in Switzerland designated Best Tourism Villages 2024 by UN Tourism
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By Raza Hussain | Recently featured in a personal capacity in The Telegraph, SKY News, The i Paper, GB News and POLITICO Europe | Editor of www.NewsLeaf.com | Senior advisor and press officer at a think tank and a foundation | Extra-Mile Winner of the Newsquest Young Reporter Scheme (2014) | Talent for Writing certificate by Young Writers (2015) | Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Sociology (2019) | Social media PR, public relations and political communication
