Politician Shortage

It is easy to forget how small the population is here but some things bring it home. The long serving Prime Minister recently reshuffled her cabinet in an effort to freshen things up as she trails in the polls with an election due next year. With a relatively small number of MPs to choose from a minister will hold a number of responsibilities so while very few faces actually change in the reshuffle the jobs get passed around. The ministers are also arranged in a pecking order of seniority with the top 9 in the cabinet.

The lack of available replacements meant that an MP who decided the best response to an opponent making some choice remarks about his divorce the other week was to "take it outside" and land a couple of punches was punished by dropping 3 places in the "chart" and losing the choice portfolio of Sport. Including responsibility for boxing I guess...