The Cabinet
Well Miliband got a demotion and that has to be good news. Foreign Secretaries don't hold much clout because big decisions are not made by foreign secretaries, they are made by No. 10.
That is the good news for me.
John Healey as Chancellor is the shock news. He was in Gordon Brown's Treasury Team. I hope he issues some war bonds to raise money for defence. I think he is a good appointment but time will tell of course. I may eat my words. (I can't help but think of Denis Healey here and the IMF and the battles of the 1976 and all that terrible time of inflation of 25% and economic crisis but hopefully we will not see any of that. Denis and John are not related). But is this going to happen all over again?
I am sorry to see Rayner back as Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary after her little misdemeanour with the stamp duty on her house purchase. Now put to rights and she paid up the £40,000.Let's see if she can get Healey to abolish stamp duty.
Shame that Hilary Benn is out of Northern Ireland and former priest Chris Bryant is taking over. I like Hilary Benn. I am always a bit sceptical about priests in politics, the two don't seem to go together. And Paula Vennells certainly did no good for the image of former priests in executive power positions in the post office scandal and should be in prison.
Stephen Kinnock is to be Welsh Secretary, one of my favourite Labour MPs during Brexit when he respected the Leave voters and didn't become hysterical over Brexit in the House of Commons. Burnham is a Kinnock fan, of his father, and perhaps we will see young Stephen rising through more to the fore. If he continues like he did with Brexit he will be ok. I don't see him as his father's son for some reason, but again, I might be proved wrong. (Father would have led Britain to ruin if he had ever been PM).
Good to see that Rachel in Accounts declined to be defence secretary (at least rumoured that she did) the first wise move of Rachel. Wes Streeting, son of Hackney, grandson of Kray friends and drinking partners, goes into defence. Well, he may not know much yet but let's hope he has a good team of advisers as I don't think he knows much about defence but then that won't be a first.
Ellie Reeves becomes AG and that gets rid of Richard Hermer, thank goodness. I think Ellie has the brains of the family and has at least worked as a barrister and been involved in cases for the workers. She is a bit trade unionisty but that can't be helped in a Labour government. She does not come under that heading of "civil rights lawyers" which so defined Starmer. (In case readers of foreign lands are confused here, Ellie is Rachel Reeve's sister).
Well that is all for now, I could go on. Oh, and talking of civil rights lawyers, Lammy goes too which is good. He can get back to some local constituency matters on the back bench and probably be a better person for it.
More if I can write them out later.
On balance, I am not so unhappy as I thought I would be with Andy Burnham. But of course, they haven't done anything yet so I am prepared to eat my hat but I truly hope I don't have to.
Good Morning Rachel! I have been a bit AWOL! It is still the Labour party but I will give the new cabinet the benefit of the doubt. It will be nice to have some time off of politics being in my head all the time. Milliband as Foreign secretary is a joke! How is he going to travel around the world without using up precious fossil fuels! We can mock him, point fingers and call him hypocrite. He is part of the do as I say and not as I do brigade. Sending you lots of happy thoughts and positive energy Rachel. Have a wonderful day! x
ReplyDeleteI think he will be seething about not being Chancellor. Foreign Secretary is definitely viewed as a demotion. I hope he does his meetings via Zoom.
DeleteThank you for the positive thoughts. And same for you. It is very dull and overcast weatherwise here today. xxx
I am glad you are pleased with some of the choices Rachel. Burnham is a new broom, he may sweep some of the old baggage away. I am looking forward to his tenure in No.10, whether it be North or South.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking positive and do think it is perhaps a new beginning and as with all incoming PMs and cabinets we do not know what to expect and there are plenty of promises and good intentions which we hope will be followed through. I have reservation about Louise Haigh but I see since I went out this morning she has lost some of her new responsibilities to Pat McFadden which means that her past fraud conviction is being taken seriously. Thank you for commenting Thelma. I hope to write about the rest of the new cabinet in the coming posts. Rachel
DeleteI quite like John Healey, he always seems to speak clearly and intelligently; as does Hilary Benn. The other lot I'm not so keen on.
ReplyDeleteI intend to write another post on those that I did not write about here. There are some I do not think should be there at all and I see the guy who gave up Makerfield seat, Josh Simons, most likely did a deal with Burnham at the time that he would be Burnham's head of policy unit and so it unfolds.
DeleteMany Happy Returns for today. Rachel xx
DeleteYou have mentioned advisers; I believe that these people in the second row, usually not in the limelight, are very important and can gain a lot of influence. Whether they use that for the good or the bad remains to be seen.
ReplyDeleteYes, the civil servants are there to advise the cabinet ministers who flit from one ministerial post to another and can easily go from health to defence to education without a murmur and, of course, they have no expertise of any of the disciplines at all.
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