Gordon Brown has set his inner cabinet team as being all his personal friends and protégés, many of whom have barely been MP’s for more than a few years.
Apart from the fact that it displays what a paranoiac Gordon Brown is by removing any ‘big beasts’ against whom he might be unfavourably compared, it also makes this possibly the worst cabinet in modern UK history. Judging by the "
Annus Horribilis" that PM Brown is now having, it shows.
So let’s have a look at this collection of misfits and inadequate’s, seven of whom have been MP’s for less than ten years:
Chancellor of the Exchequer:
Alistair Darling (
a.k.a 'Mini Me' or Gordon Brown) MP from 1987 (Scotland)
Treasury Minister under Gordon Brown since 1996. Taken over just in time to preside over, and take the blame for, any collapse in the economy. He has so far managed to get embroiled in the
Northern Rock collapse, and the loss of
25 million data records .... not bad going.
Home Secretary:
Jacqui Smith had been an MP since 1997 (England), and first held minor office in 2003. She was
plucked from this relative obscurity by Gordon Brown in 2007, and is an admitted former
drug taker who has been nicknamed “Jacqui Spliff” in some quarters. She is most noticeable for her perpetual spinning of every disaster to blame it on the Tories (best), or predecessor (2nd best), but not herself.
Most recently was found to have
buried yet another illegal immigration story until the press discovered it. Is very PC and ‘on message’ in her public statements e.g. funded the
LGBT history month (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) – or recently telling everyone who would listen that ‘mass immigration is good for UK’ despite evidence that at best it’s a neutral cost, and that in reality many groups (especially from Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia), all Muslims, are just
benefit migrants and are an active drain on the economy as well providing a source of terrorism.
Foreign Secretary:
David Miliband (
who is fast becoming an international joke). Been an MP since 2001 (England), and served as a backbencher for barely a year before ‘fast pathing’ to one of the big three jobs in UK politics.
Working for Gordon Brown, before becoming an MP, appears to be the key reason for his fast track promotion to the post of Foreign Secretary.
Recently tried to suggest that, the countries of the
Maghreb, and the Middle East, could all become members of the EU inside the next 25 yrs. He was described by an old style Labour MP (
‘Bob’ Marshall-Andrews – England 1997) as "
this pillock on his gap year” as he careers from capital to capital dispelling pearls of wisdom.
Schools Secretary:
Ed Balls (
Couldn’t make this name up) MP since 2004 (England).
Worked for Gordon Brown since 1994 and therefore didn’t have to bother with waiting for high office. Ed has managed to be in post just long enough to watch the UK
fall from 3rd to 15th (out of 41 participating countries) on the
Pirls ladder of core reading skills. And fresh in we have fallen
from 4th to 14th in the teaching of science.
That crashing noise you hear, is yet another new labour key policy hitting a brick wall..... it seems a long time since "
Education, Education, Education" was one of the New Labour battle cries.
Cabinet Office Minister:
Ed Miliband Bother of
David Miliband (
You get the picture) and son of a
Marxist theorist (who said communism failed?).
Worked for Gordon Brown from 1994 and became another “shoe in” MP from 2005 (England).
Secretary of State of International Development:
Douglas Alexander became MP in 1997 (Scotland).
Worked for Gordon Brown in 1990 … staunch Brownite from the start. (Odd how '
Thatcherism' survived as a political dogma whereas '
Blairism' has gone).
Housing Minster:
Yvette Cooper Married to Ed Balls (
Really, you can’t make this nepotism up) Former
policy adviser to Gordon Brown. MP since 1997 (England)
Defence Secretary:
Des Browne MP since 1997 (Scotland)
worked for Gordon Brown at the treasury in 2005. Recently got on the wrong side of more
ex generals and defence chiefs than you could shake a pointy stick at. He is the first man to be Scottish Secretary as well as Defence Secretary, which prompted the row. Somehow this became an
attack on Gordon Brown as well, when he was accused of treating the forces with "contempt".
Transport Secretary: Ruth Kelly MP since 1997 (England)
worked for Gordon Brown at the treasury in 2001. Only claim to fame is that she is a strong catholic who has issues about some pro homosexual policies (she overcame her scruples) .... She also had problems with child sex offenders employed in schools, and also sending her son to a fee-paying school, rather than the comprehensive system. Was a Blairite. (
Seeing as everyone else in the Labour Party does the same thing, I am not sure why this was 'controversial' rather than just plain 'hypocritical'?)
Three things immediately strike you about this list:
- Every one of these appointees has barely served anytime as MP’s, most have served no apprenticeship as a junior minister, and some have done nothing before elevation.
What do all those time served labour MP’s, who have been MP’s for decades think when they see policy wonks given safe seats and instant cabinet status? If I was one of them, I would be looking round for others of a like mind, forming a caucus of 70 Labour MP’s, and then giving Gordon a list of reforms to get rid of these little oiks.
- That everyone in his inner cabinet is a personal appointee of Gordon Brown, there are no ‘Blairites’ (if such a thing exists) and no political counter weights, aka ‘Big Beasts’ who could offer his cabinet a political balance, such as that which Brown provided to Blair, or Heseltine did for Thatcher. You have to assume that his well known fear of being contradicted or challenged, has caused him to pick political pygmies who will never be big enough to threaten him.
This is particularly noticeable when you consider the make up of previous Labour governments: Clement Attlee’s postwar government contained Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison and Stafford Cripps who were all household names before taking office. Harold Wilson had his successor James Callaghan, the urbane Roy Jenkins and the intellectual bruiser, Denis Healey and even maverick George Brown.
The famous Thatcher joke was her and the cabinet sitting down for a meal and the waiter asking her what she would have to eat? and she said “ Steak” and the waitere asks her ‘what about the vegtables?’ she replied “Oh they’ll have the same” … she could get away with this joke because the cabinet contained Heseltine, and Clarke, but what has Brown got apart from a cabinet of yes men and women?
- How the MP intake in New Labour is now centrally controlled with ‘local party democracy’ all but obsolete. Virtually every one of the ministers listed was a ‘parachuted’ into safe Labour seats that they would never have been selected for except via central control. E.g. one of these urbanites represents ‘South Shields’ and another Doncaster …. Hmm how long will they stay their once they retire? … Taxi for Miliband!
As an aside, I reckon this practise of parachuting of (mostly southern) appointees into safe Northern seats, damages Labour (and the same for the Tories) in the long run, by killing local parties. Anyone with ambition to be an MP now realises that becoming a councillor, and working for a local party, will get you overlooked when the time comes to select a party representative for MP in a safe seat. The route now is central office and a safe seat as the PM’s or Chancellors gift. This is the death knell to local seats and councillors and local democracy, all things that the PM says he wants but obviously can’t commit to.
I would be interested to know how many MP’s these days come from the city they represent and what was the figure 50 yrs ago?
I think Gordon Brown may have shot his bolt …there is a wave of anti Brown feeling sweeping the country at the moment, and its reflecting in his personal rating as he
slumps to his lowest rating. Many Labour voters see New labour as Pro Immigrant, Anti White, Pro European, and anti English, according to the conversations I am now hearing.
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