Generally, Ming’s reshuffle this week is a solid piece of work. I have very few complaints, although I’m a little disappointed that Lembit wasn’t given transport. Given that this post has gone from a bloke called Brake to a bloke called Carmichael, clearly Lembit needs to get a more automobile-related name.
Jenny Willott’s absense is notable. My suspicion is that she has opted to concentrate on constituency work for her first term.
Unlike others, I don’t consider Huhne’s appointment to environment a snub, and I hope he doesn’t either. He has a chance to make something of the role which Norman Baker himself admits has gone rather stale under his stewardship in recent years. I look forward to seeing what Huhne makes of it, my guess being that he will concentrate far more on market mechanisms and economics and far less on landfill/incinerators/wind turbines which has been Baker’s staple.
Teather’s shift to education is a good one as Davey was disappointing with this brief, and it means that I no longer get wound up by her spouting nonsense about “death taxes.” Meanwhile Andrew Stunell will be a popular choice for ODPM amongst councillors as he is Mr ALDC. Of course, being Mr ALDC means he may quite possibly start issuing “death taxes” press releases of his own.
Susan Kramer’s promotion to International Development is a double-edged sword. It is an important brief and one which can guarantee you a relatively high profile in this post-MPH world, but she will also be open to the accusation of being a Junkett Queen. Indeed, I know of one MP who is on strict instructions by their local party not to take on the role for that very reason. It only increases my feeling that she should be elected as Deputy Leader – not only would this be a good move in itself, but it would ensure she has another high profile position with a primarily domestic agenda.
Overall though, I’d give Ming 8/10 for this. A good start.
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