THERESA'S RESHUFFLE ISN'T HALF AS BAD AS SOME SAY.

Media reaction to Theresa May's Cabinet reshuffle has been almost universally negative. Some reports, mostly the more left wing ones, have gone so far as to say that the outcome so far demonstrates the Prime Minister's weakness rather than any strength.

To my mind, these reports seem to have ignored reality and been the product of preconceived notions. Theresa May has been Prime Minister for around 18 months and, since the ill-conceived General Election only some 7 months, which is surely far too short a time to be messing around with the most senior positions in her government. The Chancellor, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary surely had every right to expect to remain in post and yet the sneering BBC and much of the rest of the media has gone into a frenzy about this showing Mrs May's inherent weakness. What rubbish.

Jeremy Hunt appears to have put forward strong arguments for him staying as Health Secretary and has even had 'Social Care' added to his remit; is this a demonstration of Prime Ministerial weakness or of a Prime Minister who has been willing to listen to sense and act on it ? Allied to the fact that Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, seems to have tried something similar and failed, ending up out of the Cabinet altogether, has not Mrs May shown just the sort of strength needed ? In one case she has listened to argument and responded positively while in the other she has stuck to her guns; two similar situations and two decisions of opposite nature.

There seems to have been a bit of a cock-up from Conservative HQ when they announced that Chris Grayling was to be the new Party Chairman when that role was to go to Brandon Lewis but was that the fault of Mrs May ? It hardly seems likely. Half-a-dozen new faces in Cabinet and a tranche of new Party vice-Chairmen doesn't seem a bad job, so why all the negativity ?

When he was Prime Minister, Tony Blair also had his 'immovables' though he wasn't pilloried for it. David Cameron and George Osborne were joined at the hip and others such as Nick Clegg and Vince Cable were untouchable, but little was said about that showing Cameron's weakness. With Theresa May, it all seems to be different. Every cough or hiccup is trumpeted as her 'last hurrah'; the media is constantly on the look out for the next potential banana skin and talking her down. Is this simply a 'hate campaign' because she doesn't play the rather nauseating 'touchy-feely' and media friendly part that Cameron and Blair did ? One wonders.

The biggest problem Mrs May faces from her reshuffle so far is that she's sent Justine Greening to the back benches where she will no doubt team up with those other disaffected harridans, Nicky Morgan and Anna Soubry. That the Prime Minister was strong enough to risk yet another noisy 'Remainer' making trouble says much about her. She ain't that weak nor is she a quitter.