The UK is adrift – it is not connected to Europe; NATO is not united; the special relationship with America is broken.

‘Global Britain’, the post Brexit mirage pedalled by Boris Johnson, is an empty phrase. He thinks that if he invents a catchphrase for a policy, then he does not have to implement it – the electorate will feel ‘something has been done’.

Unfortunately urgent serious policies and action are required for social care, housing, education and to address the climate change agenda in advance of a world conference to be held in Glasgow later this year.

A glance around the Cabinet table reveals, with a few exceptions, a sad lack of talent. The test for the offer of a ministerial portfolio has been active support for Brexit and our mercurial PM.

Many promises have been made and hopes raised but has the Cabinet the collective capacity to frame and implement a range of imaginative policies?

It is sad to see so much talent and experience sitting on the backbenches in the Commons and Lords, not used, in fact providing a very capable opposition!

Johnson’s administration has been lucky so far as the Covid crisis has provided a distraction from ‘normal’ politics and potential banana skins

The retreat from Afghanistan is the first of these, accompanied as it was by a poor attempt to explain it in the Commons. There are more to come. An urgent Cabinet re-shuffle is required with the promotion of MPs with talent and experience, not just ideological correctness.

Brian Strevens