The new Defence Secretary Grant Shapps is failing and is already struggling in his new role, and it won’t have surprised many people.
It is Mr Shapps’ new role is his fifth cabinet job in less than a year.
He has been a senior minister on and off for a decade, including being transport secretary for three years.
Grant Shapps failing
To start with he is was asked by Sky’s Kay Burley that: “There’s been a lot of criticism that you got your job because it’s a job for the boys, as opposed to knowing anything about the Ministry of Defence… do you know how many ranks there are in the army?”
He replied: “Not off the top of my head.”
Shapps added: “I’ve had a lot of experience of running large budgets and complex departments.
“I think it’s worth saying, by the way, as far as I can tell only two of the last fifteen defence secretaries have had any military background themselves. It’s not usual in a democracy, where we actually pride ourselves in having civilians run all elements of government, including our military, to have people from military backgrounds.
“What I do know is how to run a department.”
Oh dear…
What next?
Speaking to LBC today, the former energy secretary described the UK’s aircraft carriers as being “the largest carriers the RAF has ever had”.
However, as you can imagine many listeners were quick to remark that aircraft carriers are built and operated by the Royal Navy, not the Royal Air Force.
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