Cameron’s sure touch on the nation’s tiller

FREE at last! After five years shackled to the Lib Dems, David Cameron has made encouraging use of his first chance to appoint a team of his own choosing.

True, the reshuffle promises no violent change of direction. Indeed, many departments stay in the same hands.

But there’s one crucial difference: Tory Cabinet members will be surrounded by ministers who support them, instead of Lib Dems intent on sabotage. We are witnessing a sure touch on the tiller, taking the Government to the right.

Where changes have been made, they’re almost all for the better. This paper is particularly glad to see the back of Vince Cable – replaced as Business Secretary by Sajid Javid, a minister with real-life experience, who wants to help businesses instead of binding them in red tape.

Meanwhile, John Whittingdale promises great things at Culture (see below), while Robert Halfon – the motorists’ friend and scourge of grasping utility firms – makes a welcome addition to a frontbench that has spoken too little for consumers.

Overall, Mr Cameron is to be congratulated on doubling the proportion of Cabinet ministers educated at comprehensive schools, suggesting he’s determined to disprove critics who sneer that he’s overfond of the privileged and rich.

Add the influx of women (who, like the new men, must now prove they owe their places to merit), and the team is already looking more like the nation it governs.

Nobody should underestimate the task of balancing the books while keeping the recovery on course. But after the pullme-push- you Coalition, it will be refreshing indeed to see ministers pulling the same way.