Historians speak of "gutting" books - getting the gist, knowing where the facts they need will be, later on, like a squirrel memorizing acorn coordinates. But there is also reading to understand the author's project, which is a little different than grappling with every bit of the book.

A long time ago I worked at a bookshop where the password to everything, and I really do mean everything, was the name of the bookshop and the letters '1,2,3,4,5'. These people had a photocopy of my passport!

easy to cover two areas cross two departments when there's very little "doing" going on

Hm yes and no - I take your point, but it could be more optimal to maximise difficult decisions in the short term to make life easier in the long term (assuming, ofc, you think those 'difficult' reshuffle choices would reap better gains in the long run)

Party trouble pretty much guaranteed at this point!

Placing bets - new university minister incoming? Bridget Philipson demotion. Maybe Ellie Reeves in. Georgia Gould promotion (HCLG?)

This is certainly true to some extent (from pov as some one who currently works in higher education welfare). The key reason why we might want to argue internalised is 'worse' than externalised behaviour is that it is much harder to spot, and thus treat, until further down the road.

This sounds interesting but also i’m always a bit baffled by the word procurement being thrown around everywhere. Maybe there’s a substack piece in this?!

Can't wait to read this book! (Especially as I am currently trying to write a novel about this very experience - its all very meta)

Absolutely, this is the most concerning thing about the current Gov rhetoric. They don't seem to think the crisis is 'real' (maybe I'm being harsh).