The Reshuffle Starts to Unravel

This reshuffle is already unravelling. Although I said it reminded me of Harold Macmillan's Night of the Long Knives, perhaps a better analogy is the Thatcher reshuffle where Douglas Hurd ended up at the Foreign Office by default. We were told earlier this morning that the Foreign Office was to be split into two cabinet level posts, with Geoff Hoon being Secretary of State for Europe and Margaret Beckett Secretary of State for the Rest of the World. An hour later it seems Mrs Beckett had thrown a hissy fit and made clear that SHE was the Foreign Secretary and the woman in charge. So Geoff Hoon has been told that although he will be attending Cabinet he won't have Secretary of State status. has the man no pride? If he and Jack Straw had anything about them they would have told Blair where he could stick his demotions. Delighted to see my little chipmunk Hazel Blears reach the top table, but I doubt whether she was delighted at the job she's been given (Party chairwoman).

The other point to make is that this has all been done so quickly that Blair cannot possibly have consulted Gordon Brown on it. It also bears all the hallmarks of a Prime Minister who wishes to make it clear that he ain't goin' nowhere. This is an eye catching reshuffle which will successfully bury yesterday's bad news. what it will singularly fail to do is dampen down the disquiet on Labour's backbenches. If they get the signal that Blair is here to stay, expect to see some fireworks pretty soon.

And as a footnote: Jacqui Smith as Chief Whip? Is he having a laugh?!