Yup.
He might have needed to do it from a party unity perspective, but that doesn't make it a good move (for reasons of the quote above yours). He needed to keep his nose clean from day 1 and avoid handing the opposition parties any open goals. First thing he does is try to play out from the back and give the ball away.
Braverman is the obvious worst decision when it comes to his cabinet picks. But he's made some other clangers in there as well. This was an opportunity for a new Tory PM to present a genuine fresh start for the Tory party. He should have looked to the back benches a lot harder and brought forward enough new faces into ministerial positions to be able to argue that he's not just "more of what we've already seen". Instead, we've got Shapps, Raab, Braverman, Cleverly, Williamson, Jenrick, Coffey, Barclay, Gove, Dowden, Zahawi ... There's a catalogue full of failure and mediocrity in that list.
