Introduction by Paul Goodman
Follow Paul on Twitter
Good work often goes unnoticed. Ministers sometimes do such work; often, I would argue, when they are Conservative Ministers. And especially when they are junior Ministers: that's to say, Ministers of State and, at a lower level still, Parliamentary Under-Secretaries.
Any mistake they make is likely to be reported. But the making of correct decisions, the implementation of right policy, the slog of Departmental toil, the announcement of a score of humdrum but helpful measures - all these are likely to be ignored.
It is with these thoughts in mind that ConservativeHome wrote to all such junior Ministers. Law officers, whips, and - in case there's any doubt - Parliamentary Private Secretaries were not included. We asked each one to tell us very briefly what they've been doing to make Britain better.
Over the next few weeks, we will print their replies every other day of the working week. I'm pleased that the work of Tory junior Ministers will get a hearing, and glad that ConservativeHome offers a chance for it to happen.
P.S: If any junior Minister doesn't give an account on these pages of what he's doing to make Britain better, assume that our e-mail to him when astray. The alternative explanation is one that the Editors refuse to contemplate. At any rate, here is the first of the series, from Damian Green.
By Damian Green
"As part of a wider consultation on family immigration routes, I have taken the first step to stopping serious criminals using the family rights provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights to evade removal. We will re-balance the interpretation of these “Article 8” rights, which have been used on numerous occasions by the courts to prevent the removal of people who should not be allowed to remain here. The consultation period ends in October, and we will change the Immigration Rules as soon as we can when we have studied the responses."
Damian Green is Minister for Immigration
Subscribe to this blog's feed