Prime Minister Brown Unveils New Cabinet

The first thing one does when one moves into a new house is clean it. So, Her Majesty’s Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Gordon Brown, MP, PC, got rid of some deadwood, some stained reputations and a few obstructions in his cabinet yesterday. With one exception, there are now no Blairites in the British Cabinet. The men and women he selected to lead Britain out of the Blair years are a competent bunch, and mercifully, they don’t all take to spin as much as they do substance.

The most important appointment was no surprise at all. Alistair Darling, always described in the British press as a “loyal ally of Gordon Brown,” is the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, taking over the new PM’s old job. Having served as Trade and Industry Secretary, Mr. Darling brings some experience in economic management along with his political loyalty. His first budget will best be described as Mr. Brown’s 11th, but continuity in economics usually is a sign of prosperous stability. Everyone likes that.

Another significant appointment is at the Home Office where the Right Honourable Jacqui Smith becomes the first woman to hold the position of Home Secretary. Her sex is not the significant factor, though; it is going to be her ability to handle the ministry now that it has been split in two. The new Justice Ministry, headed by former Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw, will run prisons and courts. That leaves the Home Office in charge of national security, immigration and the police. Her big concern will be terrorism, and whether she has the vision needed to win that fight and ability to implement that vision remains to be seen.

Also, the new Foreign Secretary David Miliband is an appointment of note. The only real Blairite in Cabinet, he is 41, making him the youngest Foreign Secretary since David Owen, now Lord Owen, was appointed in 1977 at the age of 38. His appointment is extremely noteworthy because Mr. Blair has already found a gig as special envoy to the Middle East. With the former PM representing the United Nations, United States, Russia, and the European Union (the so-called “Quartet”), the Foreign Secretary of the UK has to set some boundaries, and a decent relationship with Mr. Blair will help.

While this is largely a solid government, Mr. Brown did show some teeth in his appointments. Margaret Beckett, who has been in Cabinet off and on for 30 years, leaves the Foreign Office for the backbenches. A large body of Blairites are gone; John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, John Reid, the home secretary, Patricia Hewitt, health secretary, Hilary Armstrong, the cabinet secretary and Baroness Amos, leader of the Lords, are mere backbenchers as well. And Harriet Harman, who just one the Labour Party Deputy Leader’s job, will not be Deputy Prime Minister. Rather, she becomes Leader of the House of Commons. Mr. Brown will do without a Deputy PM; having waited so long for the top job, he clearly wants to do it himself.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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