Be grateful we finally have a culture secretary who gets it

If you want a quiet life and a stable job, on no account apply to be secretary of state for culture, media and sport. You think it's precarious being a premiership football manager? Try a job where there have been a dozen or so managers in 14 years. Even Jose Mourinho would baulk at that.

- ALAN RUSBRIDGER

Sajid Javid lasted 13 months. Matt Hancock wafted in and out in six months. You may have missed someone called Jeremy Wright, who managed 54 weeks. And then there was Michelle Donelan, who lasted all of 155 days before she moved onto a new phase of her life libelling blameless academics.

But now we have Lisa Nandy, and I have a feeling she will last the course firstly because the Labour government will no longer use the role for on-the-job training for positions apparently considered more important; and, secondly, because she is already showing signs that she will be rather good.

I confess I had been rather hoping that Thangam Debbonaire would get the job, not least because she had been a professional cellist and showed every sign of being both passionate and knowledgeable - not necessarily qualities that, say, Oliver Dowden exuded when he briefly occupied the chair in 2020-21.

But Debbonaire fell victim to boundary changes and a resurgent Green vote in Bristol, so instead we have Nandy. And the omens are promising - not least with her aspiration to rise above the enervating mire of culture wars.

Nandy's mother Luise was a TV producer at Granada TV in the days when it had a reputation as a big beast in documentaries and current affairs. Her stepfather, Ray Fitzwalter, also at Granada TV, was one of the outstanding investigative journalists of his generation. Her father, Dipak Nandy, is an academic with a deep commitment to public service broadcasting.