Reshuffling deck chairs - the division of Labour
Prescott keeps DPM title, loses responsibilities and department - he did bugger all at ODPM anyway, Miliband was running the show.Clarke out on his arse - Scottish Reid gets the primarily English role at the Home Office. A higher profile for him may provide a nice alternative to Gordon Brown for the next leader.
Straw given humiliating demotion - Hoon and Bed-Blocker Beckett share FCO - Hoon and Beckett for christ's sake! That's causing some strife already - Hoon thinks he's in the Cabinet, Blair has said otherwise.
Kelly out on her arse, Alan Johnson to get her education job. Des Browne gets Defence. Darling gets Trade that's seen as a promotion, but in effect it's a sideways move for someone of Darling's experience. Blears is new party Chairman. Thickie Armstrong out, obviously - replaced by Jackie Smith.
No news on whether Gordon's been offered a new job - I'm sure he's got one in mind.
Is this reshuffle big enough to deflect attention from Labour's piss-poor showing in the local elections? The jobs have changed but the faces are all the same...
Update (12:44): Miliband gets Environment - Not quite a high enough profile platform to spoil Brown's succession, but he may be persuaded to have a go anyway...
Update (12:55): Kelly rises, pheonix-like from the ashes, to take over what used to be called the ODPM - Blair's just playing musical chairs: only Clarke is out of the cabinet, the rest are just moving their desks to another room in Whitehall.
Matt - I know I said I'd write something about Coal, but I had to shelve that this week as work's been quite busy - I should really be working now!
I'll have a pop at it at the weekend.
B
Posted by
Ben |
Fri May 05, 11:52:00 am
Iain Dale has quoted this from Matthew Parris's Saturday Times column on his website -
"That John Prescott, after appearing in newspaper photographs with a lady’s legs wrapped around his massive neck, should be rewarded with the confiscation of everything but the dignified part of his office, is a joy. That Margaret Beckett, after failing comprehensively as an agriculture minister to deliver EU payments to farmers, should be put in charge of the whole of British foreign policy is divine. That Jack Straw, one of the diminishing band of senior ministers who doesn’t seem to have done anything wrong recently, should be the biggest loser, is priceless. That the Secretary of State for Defence should become the Home Secretary because the former Foreign Secretary has been Home Secretary already and can’t really be Home Secretary again, while he (the Defence Secretary) has already been Health Secretary and can’t be Health Secretary again, and the Leader of the House (who can’t be Defence Secretary because he already has been, but needs to vacate his post so the former Foreign Secretary can have it) has a new “ Europe” portfolio invented for him — and everyone immediately begins arguing about whether he is a Secretary of State for Europe or not — suggests a Cabinet-maker running out of timber. This isn’t a Cabinet, it’s a food fight."
Posted by
Ben |
Sat May 06, 11:41:00 am