Full list of Government appointments!

howard Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 11:46:45 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

After I spent ages digging out names, Andrea found the full list at the Guardian.

 




Update [2008-10-5 19:18:26 by howard]:

Headlines for me:

  • Adonis moved from schools to Transport
  • Lots of jobs spanning two departments
  • Hugely beefed up Cabinet Office
  • Whips office now looks very serious - Nick Brown, Tommy McAvoy, John Spellar
  • Stephen Timms' strange oddessey continues as he goes back to Treasury one step lower than his last job there - what's he ever done wrong?
  • Shriti Vadera and Liam Byrne get key roles at heart of Government

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/05/2



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Full list of Government appointments! | 36 comments (36 topical)

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#1)

by Al on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 11:49:31 AM GMT

I'd be glad to see both Cruddas and Blunkett get jobs but on the Beeb it's suggested that Cruddas has, again, turned down a ministerial post. If he has I think he's absolutely banana's and I'd be quite annoyed about it.


Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#2)

by Andrea on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 12:21:44 PM GMT

According to Western Mail:


Children’s minister Kevin Brennan, MP for Cardiff West, was believed to have been given a role in the Cabinet Office.


Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#3)

by tribunite on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 12:38:12 PM GMT

great source... Mail on Sunday !

Some of the above is wrong.  The list will be out tomorrow.


Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#5)

by howard on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 06:16:15 PM GMT

Indeed. Number 10 have released the list but it isn't available anywhere on-line yet. Should have gone on No.10 website.

 


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#4)

by jackoconnor123 on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 12:44:02 PM GMT

Hope Cruddas is offered a job and takes it. Needs more experience and crediblity if he is going to grow as a figure of the left.


Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#6)

by lastword on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 06:26:39 PM GMT

Why is everyone in such a hurry to push Cruddas in to government.  Personally, I think the offer of "Minister for Skills" was a bloody insult and he was right to say no.  What we need Jon doing is reforming the party and Gordon (and Harriet) won't let him anywhere near because they're terrified he'd actually try and reintroduce some democracy back into party structures.  No, this is the right decision.  he should focus on keeping his seat so we can really maximise his talents in the next parliament, when I have a feeling they will be greatly needed.  Those of us who support Cruddas shouldn't shove him towards the "Minsister for paper clips" type roles but should get down to Dagenham and help him campaign to keep his seat instead.


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#10)

by alexhilton on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 11:20:29 PM GMT

Minister for Skills is not a paperclips job. It's an agenda that affects every constituency and Jon's more than most.

These ministerial jobs aren't sinecures with title and salary, they're an opportunity to improve the nation for everyone.

If the Prime Minister offers you a job, I think it's your responsibility to do it as best you can, whatever the portfolio, however you might not like the subject or think it's too junior. I'm not suggesting Jon thought either of these things, but I'm disappointed he didn't take the opportunity to do some good.


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#12)

by howard on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 01:08:29 AM GMT

I have to say I think Alex is right - "Minister for Skills" is not an insult and while I agree it would be nice to have some of our brightest MPs sorting out the Party we do have a country to run...

Anyway Cruddas can now do some party work on a voluntary basis since he hasn't got a ministerial job.

For the record I like Jon a lot - he was my second choice in the Deputy Leadership - and think his chance will come...


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#13)

by Andy Ray on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 01:46:46 AM GMT

I fully agree with Alex’s spirited and timely intervention  :  our MPs sometimes tend to see politics as a (personal) career and seem to forget that it’s a public service!


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#19)

by lastword on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 10:52:33 AM GMT

"Minister for Skills is not a paperclips job. It's an agenda that affects every constituency and Jon's more than most".

That's why David Lammy has spent the last year or so trying to be moved to a different department.  I hear what you're saying, it SHOULD be an important role, but, be honest Alex, it isn't!  Jon would have slowly self combusted in that role from the frustration of its lack of teeth.  He's better off concentrating on keeping his seat.


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#31)

by ppbarrett on Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:50:09 PM GMT

"That's why David Lammy has spent the last year or so trying to be moved to a different department."

How are you qualifying that statement exactly? From what I know, Skills was his favourite brief, which is part of the reason why he has managed to be promoted within the department. In contrast to other PUSS roles, it has a large budget and is also very much part a key department in terms of Labour policy (extending adult learning, apprenticeships and vocational skills etc.).


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#7)

by lastword on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 06:27:48 PM GMT

Why is everyone in such a hurry to push Cruddas in to government.  Personally, I think the offer of "Minister for Skills" was a bloody insult and he was right to say no.  What we need Jon doing is reforming the party and Gordon (and Harriet) won't let him anywhere near because they're terrified he'd actually try and reintroduce some democracy back into party structures.  No, this is the right decision.  he should focus on keeping his seat so we can really maximise his talents in the next parliament, when I have a feeling they will be greatly needed.  Those of us who support Cruddas shouldn't shove him towards the "Minsister for paper clips" type roles but should get down to Dagenham and help him campaign to keep his seat instead.


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#8)

by Wilberforce on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 06:36:41 PM GMT

Pensions Minister Mike O'Brien from DWP to Energy and Climate Change apparently. No word on replacement as yet.


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#15)

by snowflake5 on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 04:01:57 AM GMT

Regarding the "structures of the party" etc we already have an elected Deputy Leader whose job that is. If Cruddas wanted that job, he should have got his finger out and won the deputy election.


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#20)

by Ian G on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 10:52:43 AM GMT

The problem is that ‘party structures etc’ were not part of the DLs remit. Unfortunately that sort of responsibility goes to an appointed Party Chair. Everyone knows that Harriet Harman initially stood in the DL contest because she wanted to be Deputy Prime Minister with a big government department. 


Then along comes Jon and says ‘wouldn’t it be a good idea if the Deputy Leader focussed on rebuilding the party and representing members views in government?’ Everyone thinks this is a great idea, and to stay in the race the other candidates follow suit. Gordon Brown duly makes Harriet Party Chair as well as Leader of the House and Minister for Women. Unfortunately it seems as though Harriet Harman has neither the skills, the inclination or the time to devote much energy to rebuilding the party.


Can you think of anything positive that she’s done? I can’t...


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#21)

by lastword on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 10:54:30 AM GMT

"Unfortunately it seems as though Harriet Harman has neither the skills, the inclination or the time to devote much energy to rebuilding the party".

Tout chez.


[ Parent ]

Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#9)

by tribunite on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 07:54:21 PM GMT

Rosie Winterton is new Pensions Minister


Re: JUNIOR MINISTER APPOINTMENTS SO FAR (#17)

by swatantra on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 10:31:26 AM GMT

Good to know she's still in Govt. She's sensible and reliable.


[ Parent ]

Full list (#11)

by Andrea on Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 11:57:52 PM GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/05/2


Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#14)

by Andy Ray on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 02:16:24 AM GMT

Reading through the ministerial list, two constitutional points occurred to me.
1.      We are still so archaic  :  terms like “Lord in Waiting”, “Queen’s Bodyguard” being used in the 21<sup>st</sup> century ???
2.      More pertinently  --  I think it started when Harman became the Solicitor General  --  Harman, then O’Brien, and now Baird, who are all solicitors by training, automatically became QCs by dint of their appointment. But will they be actually allowed to practise direct advocacy at the Courts?


Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#23)

by alexhilton on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 01:13:05 PM GMT

Barristers used to get silk (Queens Counsel) automatically on their election to parliament. I think Gerry Bermingham was the first Barrister MP not to get silk on election after the rules were changed. Apparently that's why he was peeved not to get a peerage after he vacated St Helens South for Shaun Woodward. (don't let this be taken as a criticism of Shaun, who I think has been an unexpectedly good Labour MP).

I don't think appointment to Solicitor General does confer automatic QC. I also think it's the Attorney General that goes to court - I recall Baroness Scotland taking a rape sentencing to appeal over its lenience.

Lawyers and constitutionalists please jump in and correct my guesses. Most of my constitutional knowledge has been learned by osmosis rather than by reading actual books.

:)


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#28)

by markmcdonald on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 10:37:48 PM GMT

Harriet Harman is a Solicitor and from memory is the only QC who does not have "rights of audience" and so cannot appear in the higher courts.

As for Vera Baird, she was a QC long before she came a member of Parliament and was a member of Took’s Court Chambers (the same as Emily Thornberry) the head of which is Michael Mansfield QC.  Vera also had an excellent reputation at the Bar as a human rights Barrister. Incidentally, Michael Howard, Ken Clarke, Geoffrey Cox, Menzies Campbell were all barristers and QC’s before they went to Parliament.


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#32)

by Andy Ray on Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 05:36:26 AM GMT

I did some research now.
1.      Yes, by parliamentary tradition, if not by law, a Solicitor General automatically gets a QC (which he/she obviously retains for life, even if he/she is no longer an MP).
2.      So, besides Harman, O’Brien is definitely another solicitor now holding the QC title. So, one fine morning, if Harman/O’Brien decides to don the barristers’ wig and appear in High Court to actively advocate for a case, there’s no tested precedent yet whether the judge will allow them the so-called “right of audience”; nor do we know how the barristers will react to this infringement to their exclusive right.


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#16)

by AngryVoter on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 09:02:08 AM GMT

I'm largely annoyed Beelzeebub himself has returned and been given a peerage.

And Margret Beckett, I mean. Good God have we slid back 10 years now? It's 2008, not 1998!

 The main reaction from the man on the street in my area seems to be a mixture of surprise and disgust.

Disgust because they all think Mandleson's a crook.

Surprised because of Beckett, who was arguably the worst foreign secretary we've ever had.

Blunkett because of the old nanny scandal.

Personally, I'm surprised. Genuinely surprised by it all.


Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#24)

by snowflake5 on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 01:50:52 PM GMT

First of all Blunkett is not in the government - sounds like some people are making things up just so they can whip themselves into a greater fury.

Margaret Beckett is a safe pair of hands, and she also represents institutional memory and experience (something sorely needed these days). There is real value in having someone around that has seen hard times (if the banks had more people in their hierachies that had seen the 70's banking crises they perhaps wouldn't have followed the business models they did).

As for Peter Mandelson, he's intelligent and capable. He is not a "crook", he has never stolen any money from anyone. He missed off declaring a loan on his mortgage form, that's all. Dreadful yes, but so is David Cameron ignoring the law on illegal drugs.


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#26)

by adwilliams134 on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 05:17:26 PM GMT

David Blunkett eh?  Waht a guy.  Until the DNA results came back no-one was sure whether it was one brat or two that he had sired by another man's wife.

The bloke is trash.   And Mandelson?  A second rate crook. 

May as well go the whole hog and bring back Prescott.    There will be enough in those three to keep Fleet Street occupied for a decade.

You can judge a man by the company he keeps.


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#18)

by NB on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 10:45:44 AM GMT

So now we have a government in which :

  1. No minister has been in his/her job for longer than two years.
  2. Only one minister at the Department for Transport has been in his job for longer than a week.
  3. 2/3rds of the ministers at the BERR have got other jobs.
Either Gordon is completely clueless about management or he simply doesn't care about running the country effectively.  Which is it?
 


Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#22)

by lambethlife on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 12:42:46 PM GMT

Or is it a wider problem with the system of government we have in the UK - we can only select members of the executive from members of the legislature.

 

10  years into government the pool of candidates for ministerial office (in the Commons at least) can largely be split into three groups

 - those who have had power and failed and so have been sacked/ resigned

- those whos talents and passions lie in other areas such as committee work/ have to tend very marginal constituencies/ are not up to the job and will never become ministers

- those who are able and are currently ministers.

According to the House of Commons website there are 349 Labour MPs and the government is made up of 80-90 ministers/office holders so Brown is in the position where he has to select approximately one third of the Parliamentary Party to join the government and so it is I imagine hard for him to find enough people to go around and so at this stage he has to scrape the barrel to find ministers or give minister two jobs etc.


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#25)

by snowflake5 on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 01:57:39 PM GMT

Are you arguing against reshuffles? Or arguing against lack of experience?

Am amused at your argument, as if you follow the logic through and work yourself into a froth just because some ministers have been in their posts only since last June, then clearly you automatically disqualify the opposition from taking government too as all of them have zero experience apart from William Hague.

I take it that you believe that this is no time for a novice?


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#27)

by NB on Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 10:24:03 PM GMT

My problem is that NO minsters have held their posts for more than 2 years. Of course you have to have reshuffles but anyone who had the smallest insight into how large organisations work would understand that changing the entire top team at once, and giving no-one a chance to get on top of their briefs, is a certain recepie for chaos, inefficiency and indecision.

I'm sorry but this is conclusive proof that Gordon is simply incompetent as PM and has no idea how to do his job.  All he cares about is surviving for the next few months. If he were serious about running the country he would not mess up the whole of government in this way.


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#29)

by swatantra on Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 09:06:58 AM GMT

The point is, junior Ministers should be moved around every two years to give them experience of Govt. Senior Ministers generally should last about 3 to 4 years, remembering that the lifetime of a Parliament is only 5 years and its not guaranteed that a Party will be returned to power. And no Minister ever wants to stay on the same rung for years, but also looks to promotion up the ladder. And of course some Ministers turn out to be duds. But you never no until they've been tried out.


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#30)

by snowflake5 on Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 03:37:30 PM GMT

But the people at the very top have not been moved at all in this reshuffle - the Chancellor is the same as last year, as is the Home Secretary, the Foreign Secretary, the Schools secretary, the Universities secretary, the Health secretary and so on. So he is in fact giving them time to get control of their briefs etc.

The only top post that got changed is that of Defence Secretary - and that was because Des browne splitting the job wasn't working out, plus John Hutton is a military historian and would suit defence as a full time job. Everyone agrees that that change was correct.

As for the other changes, they are mainly in the lower tiers.

As for your charge that ministers should be in their posts for at least two years - Gordon Brown of course conducted a cabinet reshuffle when he took over as PM in June 2007. All new Prime Ministers do that, and at the time, there had been many top people who had been in their jobs for a while and had got stale.

Is your complaint that Gord hasn't taken control over time itself and managed to make the last year into two years?


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#33)

by NB on Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 08:52:35 PM GMT

er: there have been 6 changes to the formal Cabinet of 23 and 12 to the people who always attend (total 29 - lunacy!) so that's  a 41% turnover in barely a year.

Gordon evidently sees the purpose of reshuffles as: Protecting his position and giving nice roles to his proteges.   It doesn't seem to occur to him, or you, that ministers are actually supposed to make good long-term decisions based on a real understanding of their jobs.

 


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#34)

by Al on Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 09:13:37 PM GMT

Yes, you possess an insight that no one in government, nor Gordon Brown who has been at the top level of his party for 15 years, has. It would obviously never have occurred to him.


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#35)

by NB on Fri Oct 10, 2008 at 12:20:13 PM GMT

AFAIK pretty well everyone in the top levels of the Civil Service has understood these problems, and has been close to despair at Gordon's lack of basic management skills and insights for years.  It is almost impossible to think of a major change he has done that has not been grossly mismanaged (Tax Credits, HMRC, 10-p tax ....) and anyone with real management competence who comes in to work with him tends to leave in despair within months (eg David Varley, Stephen Carter).


[ Parent ]

Re: Full list of Government appointments! (#36)

by Matrix on Sat Oct 11, 2008 at 02:12:46 PM GMT

We need a ... not Gordon Brown and Labour.


Full list of Government appointments! | 36 comments (36 topical)