Brown stuff

A number of our regular readers have been writing with questions about the British political system, particularly in the light of recent difficulties for Prime Minister Brown.

One question we found most intriguing was sent in an email entitled simply "semantics". It read, "Why is the process of changing a British cabinet called a reshuffle? Surely it's just a shuffle".

Actually the term 'reshuffle' isn't anything to do with shuffle in the sense of shuffling cards. It comes from the french verb 'reshuffler', meaning 'to dive back into the shit'.