There may now be fewer gaffes, but there’s only so much a cabinet reshuffle can do

Editorial: The prime minister is not on some radical new course, but has attempted to address the competence gap that has plagued the government for so long

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The ministerial reshuffle is one of the crueller rituals in British politics. Those doomed have to walk the walk of the damned up and down Downing Street as journalists yell at them about whether or not they’re happy at being demoted.

It must have been especially galling for the now-former foreign secretary Dominic Raab to have to go through this farce. Having been moved to the justice department, no doubt the fairly meaningless title of “deputy prime minister” will be some salve to his injured pride. Someone had to carry the can for the Kabul debacle, and it was always going to be him. In the end, he wasn’t up to the job, and the furious Tory backbenches wanted someone to pay the price for Britain’s shame.

This reshuffle, then, like most of them, has its predictable side. It would have been a turn-up for the books if Gavin Williamson and Robert Jenrick had survived, and, still relatively young men, they will have to find new outlets for their talents. Few will protest their sacking (unlike Robert Buckland at justice, who seems to have been a blameless victim of the quest to find a sinecure for Mr Raab).