The political imperative for Gordon Brown to shuffle his pack has been overwhelming.
But is change always a good thing?
So we will have fresh faces opening red boxes. We even have a new (well merged) department of state. I’m sure Gordon Brown will be hoping that all this creates a sense of freshness and relaunch, but let’s not forget there are some pretty big issues facing the country and a bit of experience may not go amiss.
In my own field of health we have the developing swine flu situation which may well turn into a full blown pandemic and will certainly cause growing problems when autumn arrives. In the wider world there is the recession, knife crime and the rise of extremism to deal with amongst many other challenges.
So a little bit of ministerial experience is not a bad thing. Luckily the UK system does ensure some organisational memory. I, for one, am immensely grateful for the good old British permanent civil service whenever it is reshuffle time.