IT felt like the moment at the end of The Godfather when Al Pacino is attending his children’s christening while his men strike out to settle the scores of the Corleone family in as brutally efficient a way as possible.

As far as we know no firearms, garottes or switchblades were involved in the cabinet reshuffle this week, but it’s hard to escape the feeling the axe fell hard, heavy and without much mercy on a few of our government’s old guard.

Not least of them was Beaconsfield MP Dominic Grieve, who lost his place as Attorney General. Of course, the always-professional and affable Mr Grieve has reacted to the news with dignity and good grace, but even so - it all seemed a bit abrupt and unexpected.

Certainly Mr Grieve’s removal from that office won’t prompt the same cheers of delight as that of Michael Gove. A BBC reporter covering his removal as Education Secretary had, rather amusingly, to confess he couldn’t find a single teacher who had anything positive to say about his tenure in the post at the school that his news report was filmed at. Sometimes, it seems, a balanced report can be tricky to come by, no matter how hard you try.

Indeed, I know a few teachers personally and they all reacted to the news this week with the sort of enthusiasm normally reserved for a life-changing win on the lottery. Time will tell how his replacement, Nicky Morgan, will fare in getting the profession back on-side, but she should be enjoying an enviable honeymoon period in the role just by virtue of not being Michael Gove.

What the upshot of all this will be, it is hard to say. On one level it is hard not to feel a pang of sympathy for David Cameron in his attempts at reshuffling his cabinet to bring more, younger, women to the fore. As the accusations of ‘window dressing’ come thick and fast, it must be hard to know what to do for the best.

Stick with the tried and tested formula of predominately middle aged, middle/ upper middle class white men, and risk them being seen as removed from the majority of people they are supposed to represent, or carry out a reshuffle that installs a more mixed, younger cabinet. Of course then he risks - and has received - accusations of cynical vote grabbing tokenism.

You would hope, of course, that Cameron has simply picked the best people for the job. It doesn’t, and shouldn’t, much matter what their age, gender or race is. Of course such naive idealism has little place in the modern world of spin doctored politics under constant media scrutiny. Cameron even Tweeted his reshuffle updates for goodness’ sake. How very cutting edge.

One of my favourite revelations of the week came when the BBCs political editor Nick Robinson said ministerial drivers were one of the best sources of information and rumour when reshuffles came around - they could tell you which MPs had the look of panic in their eyes or were filled with the excited buzz of an imminent job offer. And how refreshingly old school - a much more satisfying way to get the scoop than a dreary Twitter feed.

One thing is sure - any reshuffle less than a year before the General Election certainly has its eye on keeping the No. 10 prize.

The Tories must now be silently praying this shake-up hasn’t risked a voting backlash from all those white middle aged, middle class male members of the electorate. They certainly wouldn’t want that in this county.