4.30pm Ben Brogan echoes my prediction last week that Oliver Heald and Theresa May are on Death Row.
4.36pm Fraser Nelson reckons Francis Maude is being offered another job in the Shadow Cabinet. He doesn't say what. I have Dominic Grieve pencilled in for Justice but Maude may get that I guess.
5.15pm Francis Maude is saying an emotional goodbye to CCHQ staff
5.16pm: Rumours that Sayeeda Warsi appointed to Community Cohension post and to be made a Peer
5.19pm Just posted in the comments...
The Conservative Leader, David Cameron, has announced a number of changes to his shadow cabinet, promoting women, bringing forward younger MP's and boosting the party's credibility on handling terrorism. Pauline Neville Jones, a career diplomat and former head of the Joint Intelligence committee, will become shadow secretary of state for security. Sayeeda Warsi, a british born muslim of Pakistani origin joins the top team in charge of community cohesion. It's believed that she is the first muslim to join the cabinet of any party. Both women will be elevated to the House of Lords as working peers. The Party Chairman, Francis Maude, has been demoted - and replaced by Caroline Spelman. David Willets, largely blamed for the row over grammar schools, has also been demoted - though he will remain in charge of higher education and skills. Michael Gove, a former Times Journalist long seen as a rising conservative star, will be in charge of children and schools. Jeremy Hunt joins the shadow cabinet in charge of culture. Nick Herbert will handle Justice. All three entered parliament at the last election.
Not sure of its veracity, but thought it worth alerting you to as it all sounds very plausible...
5.24pm ConHome saying Hugo Swire sacked and Maude to shadow Cabinet Office.
5.25pm ConHome reporting Owen Paterson to Northern Ireland replacing David Lidington who becomes Hague's Number Two. Very odd. Eric Pickles replaces Spelman at Local Government - good move.
5.29pm Still getting my head round Owen Paterson's appointment...
5.30pm No mention of the reshuffle so far on Sky News so far... Still seems odd to have acrried it today when the news is full of terror stories.
5.32pm And nothing on the Press Association either. Hmmm.
5.34pm Ben Brogan reckons Dame Pauline will not getting a Peerage...
5.48pm BBC News 24 has just said that Dame Pauline will be Shadow Secretary of State for Security. That cannot be right. Surely she will be part of David Davis's Home Affairs team?
5.50pm The Press Association says Dame Pauline will be David Cameron's "personal adviser" on security issues. So is she Shadow Homeland Security Minister or not?
6.45pm Grayling to Work & Pensions and Theresa Villers to Transport.
6.50pm Rumours of Ed Vaizey going to the Treasury team to replace Villiers. Con Home reports Duncan and Lansley staying put.
6.54pm Philip Hammond to be new Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
7.10pm: PA report: "As well as shadowing the Cabinet Office minister, Mr Maude will have a role overseeing the implementation of the Tories' policy programme". So that makes Letwin, Hague AND Maude doing something similar.
7.27pm Press Release from CCHQ: Francis Maude takes over the role of Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office in the Shadow Cabinet, looking at the implementation of our programme for government. George Osborne takes on the additional role of General Election Campaign Coordinator in addition to his responsibilities as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.
7.29pm Grant Shapps replaces Michael Gove, attending Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Housing Minister. Unclear whether he retains his campaigning responsibilities.
7.30pm: Baroness Anelay replaces Lord Cope as Chief Whip in the Lords. I worked with her in the Shadow Home Office team. Wonderful woman!
Any news on Osbourne?
ReplyDeleteDay off from what?!
ReplyDeleteSo how does this work?
ReplyDeleteDoes Dave call them in one by one as in the real thing, or does he do it by phone?
He calls them in one by one.
ReplyDeleteDavid Davis as Leader. Cameron to defect to the Lib Dems as replacement for Ming. Please tell me it's true....:-)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, it's got to be Hague in place of Osbourne. Some small degree of credibility needs to be restored to the upper echelons, as the Camerloons no doubt think of themselves.
Didn't realise you had a real job...
ReplyDeletePS In "the real thing", the GCF called them by phone.
My vote would go to Dr Sean Gabb for home office minister. But then dreams now days never come true anymore.
ReplyDeleteHe may be an intellectual crancky nutcase but he talks more sense in one sentence then comes out of 18ds in a whole week.
However if you or anybody else could even persuade him to join the Conservative Party it would be a great start.
I rather thought a bit of Blackberry action. Nice and modern, speed things up.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the team.
You're a shambles, you're fired.
That sort of thing.
Get on with it then ...
ReplyDeleteBTW, what is your day job?
Perhaps DD has been given Bogs and Drains and Iain is inconsolable.
ReplyDeleteeeerrrrr.... 2 days ago a resuffle was considered a panic reaction..Oh Dear. I do hope Andrew "Time Nice But Dim" Mitchell gets a job. I am looking forward to posting all over the globe his recent NF apologist stance.
ReplyDeleteLondoner, a day off from 18 Doughty Street.
ReplyDeleteGary Powell, you are even more deluded than I thought if you think Sean Gabb ought to be in the shadow cabinet.
Anonymous, if DD was offered that I suspect I know what his reaction would be!
Anonymous, no one has said a reshuffle is a panic reaction. And secondly if you repeat that allegation about Andrew Mitchell again and don't put your name to it so he can sue you, I will delete your comment.
ReplyDeleteIain please get Sean Gabb on 18ds as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteHe is great "value" and gets debate running in the RIGHT direction. He is the perfect antidote for selfinterested unprincipled politicians of all colours. Of which there seems to be an almost infinite number, these days.
Please let us know well in advance when he is on next as he is compulsive viewing, of the highest order.
Reshuffle while the country is on high security alert. The news is dominated by events at Glasgow and London’s Haymarket. Camera On is obviously burying bad news. More young floppy haired buffoons to the fore of Tory party politics.
ReplyDeleteAndy - Quite. He sacked Patrick Mercer by mobile, the coward. I wish they would just depose him and put in Patrick Mercer as leader. He's an ex-military officer and he knows how to lead.
ReplyDeleteIain - hw's about a little table with all the positions ala the labour reshuffle post?
ReplyDeleteIain
ReplyDeleteIt was a joke. Lighten up. You know as well as I do he would not take the job if you begged him.
I too am a Sean Gabb fan.
ReplyDeleteThis is great.
ReplyDeleteJust lioke the old days.
Labour ahead in the polls.
Tories sticking the boot in - to each other.
Lib Dems going down the pan.
Oh yeh!
dale on Spelman -
ReplyDeleteShe needs to develop a much harder edge and media presence. Her Shadow Cabinet place is safe and she should stay in the same job.
Tomorrows Sun headline TITANIC GETS NEW CREW.
ReplyDeleteI/C Lifeboats post over subscribed.
Iain Dale said...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, no one has said a reshuffle is a panic reaction. And secondly if you repeat that allegation about Andrew Mitchell again and don't put your name to it so he can sue you, I will delete your comment.
Pardon Me Iain. I know that Mitchell is a very close personal friend of yours, hence your never ending brown nosing for him to enter the high echelons of the saddo cabinet. But facts are facts:
Enjoy:
The Conservatives became the largest party in Telford & Wrekin for the first time in the council's history. One of the successful candidates was George Ashcroft. As Wayne Ashcroft he had once been the West Midlands Regional Organiser for the National Front. He quit the party in 1998 but his connections with the far right, while known by some in the area, had escaped the attentions of the leader of the Conservative group Andrew Eade until the week prior to the election. When confronted with the news of Mr Ashcroft's shady past live on last week's Politics Show Mr Eade said it would be better off for all concerned if Mr Ashcroft halted his campaign. Advice Mr Ashcroft chose to ignore. Mr Ashcroft is now being welcomed with open arms - he even has a supporter in Shadow Cabinet minister and Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell. "So long as he has repented his earlier views and will stand up and say that the views of the National Front are abhorrent and he rejects them then I think he's a very welcome new recruit to the Conservative party."
*spoiling everyone's fun*
ReplyDeleteThe Conservative Leader, David Cameron, has announced a number of changes to his shadow cabinet, promoting women, bringing forward younger MP's and boosting the party's credibility on handling terrorism. Pauline Neville Jones, a career diplomat and former head of the Joint Intelligence committee, will become shadow secretary of state for security. Sayeeda Warsi, a british born muslim of Pakistani origin joins the top team in charge of community cohesion. It's believed that she is the first muslim to join the cabinet of any party. Both women will be elevated to the House of Lords as working peers. The Party Chairman, Francis Maude, has been demoted - and replaced by Caroline Spelman. David Willets,largely blamed for the row over grammar schools, has also been demoted - though he will remain in charge of higher education and skills. Michael Gove, a former Times Journalist long seen as a rising conservative star, will be in charge of children and schools. Jeremy Hunt joins the shadow cabinet in charge of culture. Nick Herbert will handle Justice. All three entered parliament at the last election
First of all, your description of my relationship with Andree Mitchell will be hilarious to anyone who witnessed our various disagreements during the leadership contest. I do not do brown nosing, and if I did it certainly wouldn't be to Andrew! I reported that he was being considered for chairman because I know it to be true.
ReplyDeleteOn the other point, you are working yourself up over nothing. If someone has renounced the National Front and views them as abhorrent shouldn't they be allowed to repent their sins? I know nothing about the case in point, I fully admit, but on the face of it I can't see why you think it is such a big deal.
And why do you remain anonymous. Your last chance to come out of the closet, but you won't will you, because you no doubt work for the Labour Party...
Annonymous 4.47. You've clearly never met Andrew Mitchell if you think he is a 'Tim nice but Dim' type!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I notice you only accuse people of being an apologist for racism from the saefty of anonymity - you coward!
Some of us in the Conservative Party think Mitchell is a nasty piece of work too. In fact it was only the thought of him ending up as Chief Whip that stopped me from voting for David Davis at the leadership election.
ReplyDeleteHe should be more careful with whom he associates.
David Wiletts has definately been demoted to Skills. 100%.
ReplyDeleteNick Herbert!? He certainly isn't up to Justice!
ReplyDeleteIain the point of the comment was to get over to yourself and others in the Conservative media, that there are more libertarians in this country then there are members of any political party. In fact all the political parties put together. Much more then even have any idea what a libertarian is.
ReplyDeleteReform of the new smoking ban would be a fantastic policy. That could deliver seats that up to now have never come close to electing a Conservative MP.
Simply give private establishments the right to enforce smoking bans if they wish. It is not rocket science, would cost less then nothing, and could win the Conservative Party a landslide victory.
If that sounds deluded I feel sorry for the party because if it loses its libertarian roots the Conservative Party will become no more then a BLUE New labour party in slightly more expensive shoes.
BTW I am a non-smoker.
It appears as if Grieve has been well and truly snubbed! Best case scenario he has lost half his brief!
ReplyDeleteMay has sex appeal. Get rid of her and you're even more buggered than you are now
ReplyDeleteI agree that the nanny state is very un-british.
ReplyDeleteSpelman & Gove in and Boy George staying.Absolutely brilliant-what a leader.
ReplyDeletePS-Dorries tells porkies badly.(PM prog)
Constituency Party's happy with Dave-dream on.
More women and more young people. Wayhey! That'll grab the voters! Bossyboots and people with little experience of life, never mind government.
ReplyDeleteAnd fired Patrick Mercer, a man of proven experience and intelligence.
I have never known a politician, save Jimmy Carter, who so dependably did absolutely everything wrong. The Tories will never get back in under his "leadership".
I have known Andrew Mitchell since his Cambridge days and I agree that "nice but dim" is a ridiculous description. I do not think he is a nasty piece of work either (although no doubt can be as ruthless as the next alpha male when he needs to be, and certainly he has always been very ambitious) but the above description implies he is ineffective and stupid. He is in fact shrewd and pretty bright (successful City career between the politics), a very good organiser rather than an intellectual. He is also a well above average set piece and Commons speaker.
ReplyDeleteHe would in fact make a pretty good Party Chairman but I suspect prefers his Overseas Development brief at the moment, and his previous loyalties to Davis would make the Chairmanship Under Cameron unlikely I would think. Could easily be a very good Chief Secretary, Defence Secretary or Skills & Universities Secretary in a future Cabinet, if he moves on from Overseas Dev. Chief Whip would also suit him although I think he would now aim higher.
Andrew Mitchell is not stupid, but he does have a bit of a rep for being a bully.
ReplyDelete"...seems odd to have carried it today when the news is full of terror stories."
ReplyDeleteAs Byers' Moll (almost)remarked, a good day to bury a cock-up
Nu Lab's dumb and tritest are very profligate with their comments these days. Poor little febrile underlings, the Brown bounce isn't real you know!
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with this smug swarm of nu lab anonymongs. They can't really believe Brown will be their salvation? It must come from reading too much Jackie Ashley romance fiction.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI have just deleted a comment making all sorts of allegations about a member of the shadow cabinet. Naturally it was done anonymously. All anonymous comments containing such allegations will be deleted with no further explanation.
ReplyDeleteIs Pauline Neville-Jones still tied up with the Carlyle Group, Qinetiq and those firms that sell arms to the US troops in Iraq?
ReplyDeleteHaving re-read the earlier references to Andrew Mitchell being a bosom pal of Iain Dale, I think someone must have misread the blog and thought that they are involved in a Ugandan affair together, but it's actually a Rwandan one. Rumour is that they are going off for a fortnight to a remote and exotic foreign location together, living in close proximity with only 45 of their closest friends...
ReplyDeleteAndrew Mitchell is, to be quite honest, one of the most lacklustre and uninspiring of the Conservative benches, so why he was even being considered for Chairmanship is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteCameron has made several mistakes. Firstly, his timing means that events will overshadow this announcement (not brilliant considering Labour's rise in the polls following their Cabinet announcement). Secondly, by keeping his best friend (George Osbourne) in position despite him not being a performer is patronage on a sickening level. Hague is clearly the best orator the party has and would have made Alistair Darling weak in comparison. I'm beginning to think it's not our pro-grammar schools policy we need to get rid of, but our inept and inadequate leader!
Just like Broon's reshuffle - the Cameron is shuffling the Titanic's deckchairs.
ReplyDeleteI suppose politics is a bit like having a family - "you can choose your friends but not your relations" type of thing.
The BBC website has the news, including Pauline Neville-Jones here
ReplyDeleteJackie Ashleys latest gushing guardian article provides a good example of the the type of wooly thinking, delusional romantic guff that New Labour so desperately want to believe in : that a dour, dysfunctional Scotsman with swing voter repelling superpowers will counter-intuitively , prove their salvation. If only reality wasn't so cruel, they'll wake up a bump not a bounce unfortunately .
ReplyDeleteShadow secretary for security, says the BBS site. If true, what will David Davis make of this?
ReplyDeleteWho's the minister in charge of halting "man made global warming"?
ReplyDeleteI think Dave should put a little wind turbine on his head. He should wear one of those little beanies you see in old Hollywood movies, with a little propellor on top, except it would be a little tiny wind turbine to fire up Dave's brain without usingany carbon emissions.
Wot?!
ReplyDeleteOnly one muslim in the new Shadow Cabinet?
Surely a special place could be found for your new friend, Yasmin Alibaih-Brown?
The end of spin has heralded a legion of scurrillous comment happy nu lab employed anonymongs. What became of the moral compass? Always was gonna becoem a hostage to fortune that Moral Compass....
ReplyDeleteVerity
ReplyDeleteYou are Janet Daley and I claim the £5.
Verity
ReplyDeleteYou are Janet Daley and I claim the £5.
is a dog born in a stable a horse - It's OK because it counts as a hat trick: woman; immigrant stock; muslim.
ReplyDeleteI cannot tell you how much I abhor tokenism. And how unfair it is to people who are more qualified and had every right to expect promotion. It makes me sick.
Bebopper - Just because you posted it twice doesn't mean you get £10!
ReplyDeleteI was hoping Ed Vaizey would get a promotion! I hope Michael Gove makes Ed Balls life a nightmare! LoL
ReplyDeleteIain - why is your avatar an 'X'? No photo appearing...
ReplyDeleteYou moronic little toad, Verity, Sayeeda Warsi is a star, one of our ablest workers, most committed politicans and well-liked everywhere. She never misses a CFI meeting. And you can call her "My lady", you bitter old peasant
ReplyDeleteIs Pauline Neville-Jones still tied up with the Carlyle Group, Qinetiq and those firms that sell arms to the US troops in Iraq?
ReplyDeleteJuly 02, 2007 5:48 PM
Obviously....but if they take over Virgin Media they can have Dave doing his Max Headroom impressions to fill in all the blank programming where Sky pulled the plug
canvas---agreed.comes from a good socialist family and therefore should have been promoted.
ReplyDeleteMinister for Community Cohesion? What community is that? The blogging community? The morris dancing community? The real ale drinking community? The glue sniffing community? There's no such thing as society just a community. Community is a silly word in this context whose meaning has been subverted by some PR dickhead to justify voluntary segregation and unjustified special pleading by people who want more than their fair share.
ReplyDeleteVerity - you are wrong about Sayeeda Warsi. Have you ever met her?
ReplyDeleteShe will be a great assett in the Lords. She is top notch stuff. Absolutely got there on merit!
cctv Thought it was only ex Presidents and PM's
ReplyDeleteIain IMO all anons should be deleted. For many reason. They are boody annoying.
ReplyDeleteAnyone that cant put some kind of ID to a comment is either too think to use a PC or just mindblowingly rude.
The more I see of Gordon Brown the more I detest the odious creep.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of her, Adrian Yelland. If you say she's not a token, I'll take your word for it. Dave is much given to tokenism and I just assume that whoever he appoints who isn't an OE must be a token.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletewhat would verity know about any of these people ? she's a lump of blubber living in latin america..
ReplyDeleteAny news on Alan Duncan?
ReplyDeleteIs there definitely going to be a seperate Shadow Justice Secretary?
ReplyDeleteGeoff, er obviously you haven't read the last few entries
ReplyDeleteEdward, ditto. It's Nick Herbert.
ReplyDeleteInteresting piece on Sayeeda Warsi from the Times: here
ReplyDeleteThanks Iain.
ReplyDeleteI see Mike's back and in a posting fury. How many bags of garbage did you order from the rubbish bin today, Mike?
ReplyDeleteIf Dame Pauline Neville Jones wasn't able to stand up to Nulabour over Greg Dyke at the BBC following the Hutton Report, why is this waste of space being allowed into the Tory Party. She is snobbish, elitist and should have no place in the modern Tory party.
ReplyDeleteBut she didn't go to Eton
ReplyDelete