Summer is nearly over. Parliament is set to return. And the Inside Briefing team is back to take stock of the last few months – and look ahead to what a lively couple of months might bring.

Ben Wallace is out, Grant Shapps is the new defence secretary, and Claire Coutinho has become the youngest member of the cabinet. But what does Rishi Sunak’s mini-reshuffle tell us about his priorities for government – and is there a better way to go about appointing government ministers?

What should we look out for at the party conference season? How is the economy faring and are tax cuts at all likely? And what stage of the Nando’s spice scale is politics going to hit this autumn?