Andy Burnham to Culture. Yvette Cooper (dear oh dear) to Chief Secretary. Caroline Flint to Housing Minister, attending Cabinet.
Has there ever been a married couple in the Cabinet before? Yvette Cooper certainly hasn't got there on merit. By all accounts it was she who was to blame for the disastrous implementation of HIPS, although because of her closeness to Gordon Brown she couldn't be seen to take the blame. She has the media presence of a slab of ice.
Andy Burnham is an interesting character and is being talked up in Labour circles as a potential successor to Brown. We'll see. I used to think he was capabale of speaking his mind, but his recent media appearances have borne all the hallmarks of a speaking clock.
He was being talked up by Andy Porter of the Telegraph as a potential successor to Brown. I am not sure whether or not that counts as "Labour circles."
ReplyDeleteYvette Cooper is really creepy, radiating malicious competence. I hope her rise is halted. I'd rather see Hazel Blears in a position of influence.
ReplyDeletePeter and Virginia Bottomley?
ReplyDeleteHas he mentioned a Welsh Secretary yet.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see if this time he has a Welsh Secretary who is Welsh.
Are there any cabinet quality Welsh MPs? Perhaps the G.O.A.T. could ask John Redwood to help out.
Anonymous 5.46
ReplyDeletePeter Bottomley never got near the Cabinet.
Aneurin Bevin and Jennie Lee?
Paul Murphy is Welsh Secretary. Back in his old job.
ReplyDeleteIt is truly remarkable how clannish - not to say incestuous - the New Labour hierarchy is. The Alexanders, the Milibands, the Balls/Coopers, the Harman/Dromeys, the Marr/Ashleys - and that's just those directly in government; then we have brothers running British Nukes, estranged husbands befriending Berlusconi.... the list goes on.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
Is the talent pool so limited?
if Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper are politicians who are rated by Gordon Brown, then it says much about his judgement. Both of them seem to have been perfectly adequate SPADs, but have nothing which would mark them out as real politicians. Peter Hain, by comparison, has been a real politician, brought down, rightly, by hubris.
ReplyDeleteBrown appears to only want people round him who are no threat. At least Blair had to cope with a few 'big beasts': Brown has none. We'll all suffer for this.
Must be difficult trying to find someone with some intelligence and ability though, mustn't it - given what there is to choose from that is.
ReplyDeleteDear oh dear, Caroline Flint, the Yorkshire Yeti, promoted.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I always want to throw something heavy at the TV when she appears?
Tom Watson has a new job too.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it is entirely good news when the termination of the rise of the Permatanned One is replaced by the promotion of those egregious @r$e-licking greasers Andy Burnham and James Purnell...
ReplyDeleteStill I'm sure they will be messing up their greasy poles by blotting their copybooks over something or other in the not too distant future..
Oh no, Tom Watson is back in the government ranks as a Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office.
ReplyDeleteThey said Brown had Labour's B Team, but Cooper, Purnell and Watson? C Team at best.
The big question now has to be why Wales has a full time SoS and Scotland has a part time one?
ReplyDeleteReally, really, unsavoury - husband and wife in the Cabinet. Some time ago the Civil Service codes forbade such things - for very sound reasons. What has happened since then? Greater honesty, integrity and probity? Not with this shower of excreta.
ReplyDeleteAnd is Cooper - or Balls, for that matter - really up to the job? Not from what we've seen to date. The truth of the matter is that Brown doesn't have any people of competence to put in place. He's antagonised and distanced himself from any of his more able erstwhile colleagues. The net result is we have a Cabinet full of piss-poor sycophantic amateurs.
And the charabanc of Cabinet day-trippers staggers on, out of control, towards the cliff edge....
On behalf of the national federation of ice manufacturers and chandlers, your comment comparing Yvette Cooper to a slab of ice is deeply offensive to frozen water everywhere. Please withdraw this comment at once, or proceedings will be issued.
ReplyDeletePaul Linford said...
ReplyDelete"Aneurin Bevin and Jennie Lee?"
Jennie Lee didn't become a minister until after Aneurin Bevan's death.
She was Arts Minister. I don't think she was in the Cabinet.
I see m'lady Shiti (Railtrack)Vadera has resurfaced, at the wreck of the DTI this time.
ReplyDeleteNationalisation without compensation is clearly back as the soupe du jour.
Unsworth said...
ReplyDelete"Really, really, unsavoury - husband and wife in the Cabinet. Some time ago the Civil Service codes forbade such things"
They are not civil servants.
Yvette Cooper was to blame for HIPS there's no doubt about that, she ignored civil service advice to postpone the launch but wouldn't listen (or hadn't read her brief which was usually the case). Ruth Kelly faced the heat in the Commons for her Minister of State's lack of judgement and sheer pig-headedness.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has ever had any official dealings with her will testify she is the laziest Minister ever to have reached such high and undeserved office. She wasn't up to scratch as a Junior Minister in ODPM. Good riddance to bad rubbish! God help the Treasury.
Yvette Cooper in charge of our money? Surely that's Balls?
ReplyDeleteTerrible woman. When will it end?
Are we sure James Purnell is actually the real Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, or has he been digitally pasted in, as before?
ReplyDelete@ Anon 10:43pm
ReplyDeleteYour point being? Maybe it's OK for others not to have the same standards of behaviour or morality? So a sliding scale of integrity then? Magic.