It’s not the big Home Office reform we expected, but everybody has to start somewhere. Home secretary John Reid has ordered a reshuffle of his senior aides. Steve Bates, whose pugnacious approach made Reid look kindly, has been moved as media spokesman and now takes on a policy role.

As Reid traipsed from department to department, Bates was never far behind. His replacement is Anna Macmillan, who has held a series of Labour press posts and is known for her courteous style. She is expected not only to try to soften Reid’s image — and good luck to her — but to guide the Home Office through a series of public relations disasters. These include last week’s controversy over Megan’s law on paedophiles, in which Downing Street seemed to contradict the Home Office, and the aftermath of leaks that wrongly suggested the young Muslim wounded in the recent Forest Gate police raid had been shot by his brother.

Bates once advised political aides to stamp their authority on civil servants as quickly as possible: “If you want to boss the midfield in a game of football, you’ve got to win the first big tackle.” Has Bates now been sent off for rough conduct?

Lammy to the slaughter as minister attones for rural slur

Culture minister David Lammy will be enjoying plenty of fine country fare next month: namely, several large slices of humble pie. Lammy is off on a tour of the countryside to atone for an ill-advised speech at the Labour conference last year in which he referred to rural folk as “inbred”.

Luckily for Lammy, his remarks to the Fabian Society were overshadowed by the eviction of 82-year-old Walter Wolfgang from the conference hall. But they did not escape the attention of the Countryside Alliance. After an angry exchange of letters, Lammy has apologised “unreservedly” and has agreed to slip into his government-issue green wellies for an instructive tour.

Kirsty wades in out of the blue as tip for desert island posting

A new figure has appeared unexpectedly on the horizon, paddling towards the golden sands of radio’s best-known desert island.

The BBC is expected to announce in the next 10 days who will succeed Sue Lawley as presenter of Desert Islands Discs, and the new name on everybody’s lips at Broadcasting House is Kirsty Young, currently on maternity leave from Five News.

Her emergence will disappoint Newsnight’s Martha Kearney and former Today presenter Sue MacGregor.

Kearney has been considered seriously, but the Radio 4 rumour mill suggests she shouldn’t be getting her deckchair quite yet.