Thursday, June 28, 2007

Brown: The South East Doesn't Matter

Gordon Brown announced a list of regional ministers this afternoon (HERE). Strangely he omitted to give the South East a minister. Living in Kent, can I just say how grateful I am.

Minister for the North of England and Deputy Chief Whip (Treasurer of Her Majesty's Household): The Rt Hon Nick Brown MP
Minister for the North West: The Rt Hon Beverly Hughes MP
Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber: Caroline Flint MP
Minister for the Olympics and for London: The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP
Minister for the South West: Ben Bradshaw MP
Minister for the East Midlands: Gillian Merron MP
Minister for the West Midlands: Liam Byrne MP
Minister for the East of England: Barbara Follett MP


UPDATE: It appears Tessa Jowell will be covering the South East too. I am sure you are as relieved as I am.

57 comments:

Liberal Republican said...

You are wrong Iain

Tessa Jowell is also Minister for London and South East

I blogged it earlier

Anonymous said...

AFAIK Tessa Jowell is Minister for london and the South East (and the Olympics).

Anonymous said...

Talk about job creation! It will be interesting to see how many of these new 'Ministers' get proper portfolios alongside these. If they don't, what will their Ministerial salary be, and what increase will the posts 'necessitate' to the staffing etc. of the existing regional offices?

Antony said...

Bugger. Barbara Follett is my minister here in Norfolk - not that they had much choice in this part of the country. I wonder if Charles Clarke was offered it...?

Anonymous said...

Oh so he's given us Tessa Jowell. Thanks a bunch - makes it SO much better!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the era of spinless, uncorrupt politics. Why on earth do we need all these regional ministers of state, you ask yourself? Simple. It allows Brown to use taxpayers money to mount regional propoganda campaigns. Each regional minister will have a large budget to ‘explain’ the ’success’ of government initiatives, including the use of billboards, radio and TV advertising as well as the employment of regional ‘delivery’ Tsars whose job it will be to trumpet the doings of His Brown Majesty. Cynical? Not me, guv.

Anonymous said...

So there's the west lothian question solved then....!! Ha, ha, ha. You couldn't make it up!

BTW, when will the Tories have the cojones to suggest that the posts of SoS for Scotland, Wales and NI be abolished and replaced by a single Cabinet post? And that this be accompanied by the end of Welsh and NIrish over-representation in the Commons? But then that would mean the end of cheap jibes about 'two-jobs' Browne, Hain etc. as well as a serious debate about how to handle the impacts of devolution on England and the UK state. So I guess I wont hold my breath.... On this issue you can't push a rizla paper between NuLab and NuCon.

Anonymous said...

That'll teach you to be grateful Iain!!!!

See Mrs Follett got (a little) reward for her husbands generosity.

Anonymous said...

Jowell should be in clink after her corrupt actions regarding the olympics. disgraceful.

These people are all totally irrelevent, another excuse to waste our money on labour propoganda.

i hope cameron denounces these idiotic appointments and exposes the waste involved.

Broon has really show his true colours with an utterly underwhelming reshuffle. Baton down the hatches for 2 mor eyears of socialist big government and corruption

Anonymous said...

Boy George being kebabed on pm.He really shouldn't be out on his own.
Nearly as big a mess as Eton Dave's last outing.

Ross said...

Off topic, but I've just written a post on my own blog looking at the pre political careers of the new cabinet and IO'm wondering if anyone knows what Lord Grocott (Lords whip) did before politics.

Incidentally if I'm right then there is not a single member of the cabinet who has had a career in the private sector outside of Law & Journalism.

Anonymous said...

typical BBC, SKY are running headlines on their website about an arrest in the Maddy case, BBC stick with Brown!

Anonymous said...

Ross F: Grocott was a polytechnic lecturer up to 1974; then an MP 1974-1979; then a television producer 1979-87; then an MP 1987-2001. Peerage and junior minister 2001; chief whip in Lords 2002.

Tapestry said...

Don't you know anything about the euro-regionalisation programme? The South East is part of Northern France. Sarkozy needs to appoint its minister.

SamuelCoates said...

I noticed that but it does say "London and the South East" elsewhere on the No.10 website.

Chris Paul said...

Oh, dash it all. I was hoping Iain was going to get the call.

Anonymous said...

That unelected Scottish dullard is now rampantly, full steam ahead regionalising England.
He continues to refer to the UK as a country of nations and regions, we all know he is calling England "the regions".
If he thinks he can erase a Nation that is 1500 years old on a socialist whim he is thicker than he looks.

SPAM ALERT said...

how to nip any future backbench revolt in the bud = make them all ministers. Has he announced who is appointed Minister for the street round the corner from Sarah's mum yet?

Anonymous said...

BBC reporters have clearly all been instructed to sound upbeat about the new Cabinet. They all sound as though they're on Prozac.

Anonymous said...

"Grocott was a polytechnic lecturer up to 1974"; great. Was that in Maths, Ural-Altaic languages, ... or some tedious non-subject?

Tapestry said...

Brown is a rampant euro-fascist. The reason he wanted Blair gone was so he could dismantle England pairsonally.

Gareth said...

More like 'England doesn't matter'.

No collective national voice (or minister) for England.

This has 'nations and regions' written all over it.

Anonymous said...

Yep, afraid it's Jowell, se the Cabinet page on pm.gov.uk

Anonymous said...

Yeah, what about the British Protectorate of London? Dont hunter-gatherers have special needs, like a ready supply of prey to hunt, and bling to gather?

Anonymous said...

HM Ambassador to Jamaica: James Davidson esq.

Anonymous said...

For Kent see London

Anonymous said...

We get Caroline Flint for Yorkshire and The Humper....be good to see a white woman again.....

Anonymous said...

OUr Caroline

Flint: need to harness talent and enthusiasm

http://www.carolineflint.co.uk/gallery/gallery-large14.htm

So is this William Hague's revitalisation of the North....Caroline Flint ? WE'll take her Willie.....good work recruiting her for us up here

Anonymous said...

You dont have to wait until tomorrow to hear about Broons "Constitutional reforms", you can see them right here on this helpufl diagram.

Funny how they are exactly the same as Bliars and the EU's, isn't it?.

http://tinyurl.com/2v7crr

Anonymous said...

The EU bandwagon goes up another gear with ministers for the regions, along with the World Government agenda with Blair as peace-maker for the planet.

Which side of all this is Dave on?

Anonymous said...

Which side of all this is Dave on?

"If it's okay with Labour it's okay with me " said Dave

We in the Mod Con Party are all for Labour policies and will be inviting the Quartet Middle East Envoy to address our Conference

Ross said...

Willie Norton. thank you for the background on Grocott.

Chris said...

I don't recall a referendum on the break-up of England. Oh, there wasn't one?

Anonymous said...

What gets me extra excited about this is that 5 out of 9 of these ministers are women. This is so progressive!

Anonymous said...

Wow! they're so desperate to devide up England into seperate statelets aren't they.

Yak40 said...

EU's idea of Britain:
http://europa.eu/abc/maps/members/uk_en.htm

Anonymous said...

To those who display their ignorance and/or bigotry by attacking the Scots, keep repeating the following:

"England has the Labour government that England voted for!"

...until it gets into your thick skulls why we have the Labour government that we have!

In England alone Labour had a majority of 47 MPs at the last general election - never forget that, whenever it pops into your heads that it's all the Scots fault. It's not!

Anonymous said...

Just how the hell is it "attacking Scots" by highlighting the disgraceful and unnacceptable way England is being misruled?.

And if i was you id keep the phrases like "Get that into your thick skulls" to a bare minimum!.

Or perhaps reserve them for yourself.
-------
RE: True Brit said:

"England has the Labour government that England voted for!"
---------
Lets just read about that...

"More people voted for the Conservatives in England than for Labour - but the Conservatives won 92 seats less than Labour within England (285 to 193). The Conservatives received 60,000 more votes than Labour in England."

http://tinyurl.com/2jh5s3

Byeck said...

Caroline Flint for Yorkshire...I'm back on Capstan Full Strength in a darkened room. The woman makes me want to throw things at the TV

Anonymous said...

Bugger. Barbara Follett is my minister here in Norfolk -

Go to church and get a proper parson

Anonymous said...

More to the point, what the hell are these bods going to do and to whom will they report?

Anonymous said...

Hey anonycoward@8.43pm - it's no secret that the Conservativres got 60,000 votes more than Labour in England - but that matters not a jot under our long-established first-past-the-post electoral system - not a jot.

The fact is that, under our democratic system, England elected:

Lab: 286 MPs, 35.4% of the vote
Con: 194 MPs, 35.7% of the vote
LD:     47 MPs, 22.9% of the vote

plus two others (one of whom was a Scot elected in London by English constituents).

But, as I say, the percentage share of the vote matters not a jot under our electoral system.

If it did, and seats were awarded accordingly in England, you would have had:

Lab: 186 MPs
Con: 187 MPs
LD:   120 MPs

Even you can see that, taking into account the number of votes cast, you'd still not have the Conservative government that you ache for.

The fact remains that:

"England has the Labour government that England voted for!"

And if you don't like it, get out and campaign to change things, instead of having a go at the Scots or defending those that do so on your behalf.

With 85% of the MPs at Westminster representing English constituencies even those as short-sighted as you should be able to get things changed as you wish - so long as English voters (including this Scot) are bothered enough about it.

Chris said...

Heavens, isn't this Scots bloke defensive?

Having said that, there's an incredible amount of apathy amongst the electorate in England. That's how undemocratic types like Gordon Brown get their way. And lapdog English MPs are on the gravy train all the way.

Trouble is, England was subsumed into Britain many years ago - so Joe Public is confused. Add to that fragmentation and the "I'm all right, Jack, pull the ladder up" attitudes of the caring, sharing 21st Century, and you start to see some of the problems in getting back democratic rule in England. I mean the UK regions. Sorry.

If the electorate in Eng... er, sorry, the regions, wanted, Brown could be made very aware that he cannot get away with what he is doing.

But the electorate, in the main, doesn't give a toss.

Chris Paul said...

Why is there no correction or retraction of this mistaken post. A genuine mistake no doubt. but a mistake nonetheless as your very first commentator pointed out almost six hours ago.

Anonymous said...

Is somebody stockpiling piano wire and lamp-posts?

Anonymous said...

Brown has appointed junior ministers to represent the English regions.

So England is partitioned with no voice in cabinet while Scotlandn Wales and Northern Ireland get cabinet representatives and millions extra in English taxpayers cash to fund their bloated public sectors.

This is just the start of the new Scottish Raj which will sponge of England. An England where the Labour party were beaten in votes in the last election.

Who speaks for England? Where is the justice? Why are the Conservatives failing to stand up as the true majority voice for England?

Jeremy Jacobs said...

Regional Ministers?

Is this all to do with the unelected regional assemblies we have? (Another EUssr invention)

Anonymous said...

Why are the Conservatives failing to stand up as the true majority voice for England?

Because they aren't - they are Home Counties Party Circuit

Roger Thornhill said...

Iain Dale I am so dissappointed that you did not twig this blatant Regionalisation of England to the EU structure.

Anonymous said...

A Scottish natonalist called Gordon Brown, once signed the pledge, “We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests shall be paramount.”

If the Scots have a sovereign right to determine their own form of government, then so too do the English.

Gordon Brown will eat his words before his reign is done.

Clearly, he is not prepared to listen to the English. His spinning words will come back to haunt him.

Inamicus said...

Why does any mention of the word regions cause such a hoo-hah?

Wasn't it a Tory government that introduced Government Offices for the (English) Regions? Furthermore, the last Conservative government had ministers (often in the Lords) charged with nominal responsibility for certain regions - Heseltine as Minister for Merseyside springs to mind.

It doesn't seem too bad an idea to me to have ministers reponsible for joined up delivery and oversee these offices. It's also extremely useful to a region such as the North East to have a lead politician following up its interests in government. Outside the Beltway Bubble many people feel with good reason that the particular interests of particular parts of the country don't get enough attention from government. There has long been a Minister for London - it is high time other parts of the country had the same level of representation.

If this innovation helps - and said ministers are held accountable for addressing regional priorities (for example the dualling of the A1 in Northumberland) - I'm all for it.

Chris said...

Inamicus:

Actually, local government in England should be decided by the English electorate via their own MPs in an English parliament - not by a dictate from Gordon Brown, who has no mandate to govern England.

The same Gordon Brown signed the 1988 Scottish Bill of Right that set Scotland firmly on the road to its own parliament.

The North East of England voted 78% "NO" to a regional assembly, the Conservative regions were nothing like this, and around 67% have been voting for a national English parliament in recent polls. Give the people that, then sort out local government.

It's a little thing called democracy, Inamicus - you'll find it in the dictionary, dear.

Anonymous said...

So Inamicus is LabourWatch dead now?

Why's that? Have you gone Labour...much like the Liberal Democrats actually.

Phil said...

Now it seems the SouthEast DOES have its own minister after all. It's the Chatham MP Jonathan Shaw.

Inamicus said...

LW is on holiday. Will be back in a few weeks.

Anonymous said...

I see he's not given any one responsibility for the North East, is this after they rejected the idea of a non elected bureaucratic Assembly perchance?

Chris Paul said...

You were half right Iain. Although the SE role was temporarily bundled in Tess' patch it had I believe been offered to Jon Cruddas. He turned it down I'm told and then it was offered elsewhere. Story here. So being as you were half right this is a full apology for suggesting - along with a fair proportion of your own crew - that you were fully wrong. Your story is after all cut an dpasted from the Number 10 website. And that's never wrong.