Paris Gourtsoyannis: Reshuffle more about Tories than Government

It must come down as the shortest promotion of history. Chris Grayling was announced yesterday as the new Conservative Party president for the full 27 seconds. If the transport secretary can reduce the average delay of the train to this type of weather, he can withdraw with triumph. A kind of humiliation was inevitable during the procedure. There is no "good" cabinet reorganization; When you take a step back, this is a process whereby an employer releases a handful of senior executives publicly and then replaces their replacements in the national media later in the day.

As a means of proving authority, there is little dignity, and the bas-reliefs of the previous re-treatments have passed into the legend. David Cameron was accused of sitting without unwanted servants while sipping red wine and saying they were too old. At least twice recently, jobs were announced for the wrong people because MPs had similar names. Former Labor member Malcolm Wicks reportedly missed a job as minister because a note with his name was on a bulletin board without anyone noticing it. But even if it can cause embarrassing newspaper copies, not many people in the real world will notice the Twitter blooper of the Conservative Party, and few will remember it. However, the error shows what this realignment is in reality and why it matters. Regardless of how unlikely it may seem, the fact that Grayling titulared as a president of the Conservative Party in half a minute is reminiscent of rock and roll folklore.

The Van Halen group was known for its tour driver, who demanded that the concert halls offer a M & M scale with all hand-selected brown sweets. The absurd, diva-behavior has fallen as one of the most bizarre examples of surplus rock and roll, but the real reason was only revealed when singer David Lee Roth published his autobiography. "When I walked backstage, when I saw a brown M & M in this bowl ... well, check the whole production," he writes. "Make sure you're going to make a technical mistake, they have not read the contract, you've guaranteed you'll have a problem ... something like, literally, living in danger."

Like a brown M & M in a candy bowl, a shameful tweet does not mean anything - but it's a little reminder of how the Conservative Party does not work. The chirp-snafu who released the name Grayling should come because ministers and party officials sincerely thought he would be accused of refreshing the conservatives' campaign.

The journalists were informed and started distributing the information, which was picked up by the political director of the CCHQ. The incorrect ad was then rejected on social media and instant messaging to conservative MPs. The fact that things went wrong tells us a number of things: first, although clash is a well-established mistake by the May government, the biggest decisions are still taken by a small group of people in Downing Street alone, without his colleagues in inform the party device in general; secondly, those who have stayed outside are those who are accused of spreading the message of the conservatives online, where they urgently need to close the gap with a Labor party stimulated by energy and know-how. momentum. Although the current figures are a well-preserved (and embarrassing) secret, expert analysis suggests that the number of members of the Conservative Party has dropped below 100,000 and may be as low as 70,000

The party has a specific problem with the young people under the age of 40, and that is why it needs so much to bridge the gap with work in digital messages. The flaws in his online operation can be life-threatening in general elections. Many of the conservatives' efforts in this area at the end of last year were spent trying to restore the perception created by a small parliamentary vote on the Brexit that was mismanaged and unnecessarily reported, that his deputies tried animals to make. The question was online viral, and conservative MPs asked social media to set the record right, posing with their pets if possible. The infinite postponement of May of every vote to restore fox hunting was a real attempt to clear up a mess that took place in cyberspace.

The reshuffling of this week is another. The new design of the New Year's cabinet is not about redefining the government of May, directing a new direction or giving it a new advantage. His hands are bound by parliamentary calculation exercises and external events, which is why so many big names have remained in the cabinet despite the long-standing will of the prime minister to dismiss them. The only radical shake-up that May will make was at the beginning of her term, when she left Cameron Toryism on the sidewalk for the binmen and set up an administration to deliver her idea of the Brexit. In any case, the government has little national agenda after 18 months.

Downing Street is honest with itself, it will admit that its role is to achieve a Brexit result that is acceptable to multiple voters before the next general election. No, it is not a rearrangement of the country or the government, but of the Conservative Party and the way it presents itself. The most important agreements are not in the Cabinet, but in the CPHQ, where the ambitious MP James Cleverly has been recruited to take youth, energy and some of his anarchist social media style into the Conservatives' campaign. . In a photo shoot of Downing Street yesterday, he was accompanied by a multi-ethnic group of conservative, gender-balanced MPs and newcomers who will spread across the country to revive the activities and campaigns of local parties.

This is another goal of the week's reshuffle: to introduce a new generation of leaders to take over in May while insisting that they be present at the next general election. You will not recognize new names today, but in three years one of them could be the prime minister.