I thought I might do a little analysis of this tweet. It’s a rare example of a direct and unfiltered communication from a senior politician in a medium which can provoke a more open style.

Firstly, I think we can assume the tweet was penned by Mr. Frost. The tone and content are, in my opinion, too personal and idiosyncratic to have been written by an advisor or a press officer (which would have more likely produced a blander version).

The first paragraph is the substantive part. Mr. Frost states the two most important aspects of his appointment. That he will be the Minister and that in that role he will ‘take forward our relationship with the EU after Brexit.’

The latter is an interestingly comprehensive statement. Our relationship cuts across all sorts of different areas of government - trade, immigration, foreign affairs, security.

One wonders how that will work in practice. Will he have a large team (if he doesn’t, then that would be revealing)? Are all the other ministries subordinate to him with respect to dealings with the EU? How does this all work in practice. It is a very sweeping statement.

The ‘our’ is also interesting. The ‘our’ should refer to the UK. But does it really. It is too mischievous to ascribe the ‘royal we’ but not too much I think to suspect a trace of ‘I’ from the architect of the deal.

Ib any case, while the consequences of the new relationship effected by Mr Frost in his deal are very much for all of us, the responsibility for it’s ownership (the operative ‘our’) has a smaller provenance - Frost, the PM, the government. It is as much if not more ‘their’ deal.