Although it didn’t happen on this occasion, I often get asked before speaking at conferences to submit what I am going to say many weeks in advance. I am afraid I always have to refuse because the policy environment moves too fast. Never is this more true than now. Just 48 hours ago, there was no Conservative leadership election, we had a different Chancellor of the Exchequer, and we had a Secretary of State for Education, a Universities Minister, a Schools Minister and a Children’s Minister, all posts which are now vacant.
The last few hours show yet again that only fools make political predictions, particularly if those predictions involve Boris Johnson. I might reinsert to my regular presentations the old cartoon by Matt from the Daily Telegraph that first appeared just after the Brexit vote. It shows two freshers chatting. One says to the other, ‘I’m studying politics. The course covers the period from 8am on Thursday to lunchtime on Friday.’ The current mess also, incidentally, as I Tweeted out this morning, confirms an old truth: that politics that it is a team game rather than an individual sport.
