Mark Andrews: Students in the battlefield, the Turner Prize, and why things are looking Shaky for the PM

David Davis, the former cabinet minister and ex SAS reservist, reckons the Government ought to solve the problem of our threadbare army  by recruiting students, who can do their training during the long summer holidays.

I fear Mr Davis may be a little out of touch with the modern student lifestyle. Training would begin at midday,  obvs, to give them chance to watch Homes under the Hammer first. And they would probably want to do it online, so there would be no need to get out of bed. There would need to be a safe space flor them to retreat to every time the Sgt Major questioned their parenthood,  they would require a gluten-free diet in the Naafi, and expect the enemy to issue a trigger warning before mounting an attack.  

As an idea for boosting army numbers, it is a non-starter. As the basis of a sitcom though.... 

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Meanwhile, the Prime Minister announced what was emphatically not an early 'reset' or 'relaunch' of his government after five months in charge, but was rather the announcement of six new milestones and three foundations, plus the seven pillars of the growth mission . They follow on from the five missions, announced last year, and the six first steps for change announced in June. I'm confused. How can there be six milestones to measure progress on five missions? Or are there six milestones for each of the five missions, making it 30 in total? And is the growth mission the only one to have seven pillars, or do all five? That's 35 pillars and only three foundations. You do wonder whether things might get a bit rickety.