No one in their right mind would be interested in the squalid personnel-changes that pass for politics in Poland but the elevation of Zyta Gilowska to minister of finance and deputy prime minister illustrates a few realities about where power lies in Poland that might go some way to reassure those who are worried about the autocratic tendencies of the ruling Kaczyński twins.

Gilowska was a member of the PO (Civic Platform – the names, as usual in modern politics, are largely meaningless) before being kicked out back in May for a mild case of nepotism. She has now joined the near-winners in the recent elections here: the Kaczyńskis’ PiS (Law and “Justice”). The interesting bit is the minister for finance that she is replacing: the hapless Teresa Lubińska. Lubińska’s sin was – no, not nepotism and not party political apostasy and opportunism either – but the far more heinous crime of offending the markets. Some time ago she expressed a negative opinion about the gigantic foreign supermarkets moving in to pick over the carcass of the Polish economy. The worst thing was she did so in the Financial Times, where foreign investors might read it. It’s alright for newspapers to report how supermarket employees work wearing nappies because they are denied toilet breaks but a government minister must on no account pass such remarks, lest investors be scared off.

So there you have it: the make-up of the Polish cabinet is not determined by the prime minister, Marcinkiewicz, nor his puppet-master, Kaczyński, but by foreign investors who read the Financial Times and need nappy-wearing wage-slaves to keep the profits rolling in.