I’m sorry that John Denham has left the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills. Regardless of the politics of it, I rate John Denham highly as a man who really cares about making a difference for learners. I’ve only met him once, wearing my hat as chairman of Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College - I found him intelligent, thoughtful and genuinely wanting advice on the complex problems he was wrestling with. He wasn’t after quick headlines – and, thanks to a financial muddle in the Learning and Skills Council, most of the headlines his department hass got recently have been rather negative - and he seemed very much after changing the world. As I retain my schoolboy enthusiasm to do just that, I think that’s a good thing.

I praised him here a couple of months ago for trying to propel the agenda through his honest appraisal that the government can’t do everything, and his invitation to people outside government to form an intelligent partnership with him. No doubt he’ll find plenty of opportunity to follow the same logic in his new job as communities secretary – but I’m sorry he won’t be following it through in skills.