STEWART PATERSON

THERE’S been a re-shuffle, have you heard? At Westminster, Theresa May has launched a desperate attempt to re-boot her Premiership and convince people the Conservatives are changing. We heard that one before from David Cameron. Remember him? The re-shuffle, however, was less of a shake-up and more of a gentle stir because Theresa May lacks the bottle or more likely the authority to make any meaningful changes at the top of government.

So, while the big beasts like Boris Johnson and David Davis remain in post as the world looks on in bewilderment, the Prime Minister tinkered around with lower level cabinet posts and the junior tier of government.

Much has been made of the new faces in the government ranks. Out with one or two white middle aged men and in with one or two more women and people from minority backgrounds.

The faces might look a little different but it is still the same government pursuing the same policies.

At the DWP David Gauke, a white, middleaged man, has been replaced with Esther McVey, a white, middle-aged woman. The foundations hardly rocked there. Ms McVey is now the fourth Work and Pensions Secretary under Theresa May’s short reign, hardly a sign of strength and stability.

Ms McVey was previously in Government as a minister for disabilities and then for employment under Cameron.

This was when Iain Duncan Smith was Work and Pensions Secretary and Ms McVey rigorously pursued his agenda of forcing disabled people into looking for work which they were clearly unfit to do.

She made the announcement to replace Disability Living Allowance with Personal Independence Payments that would see 300,000 people either lose benefits or have them cut.

Ms McVey hardly stood up for disabled people then and there is nothing to suggest she will now.

In fact, the appointment of Ms McVey to the top job in Work and Pensions shows that nothing has changed and the Conservatives will still look to punish the poor and blame them for their own poverty

Let’s see if she will push to scrap the two child tax credit limit or the rape clause. Let’s wait for her to reform the work capability assessments to make them fair and based on the needs of people not budget cuts.

Let’s also wait to see if she will end the punitive sanctions regime that is forcing so many people to rely on foodbanks to feed themselves and their children.

In the interests of all our health, can I recommend you do not hold your breath while you are waiting?

This re-shuffle is just a re-arranging of the deckchairs. So much so that I half expected to see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet walking up Downing Street to be offered a part in the drama.

Theresa May is holding on for grim life as the water rises all around her.

It is the slowest sinking ship ever but the saddest part of the plot is that she is intent in taking down as many of us with it.