"LPYS/NOLS/union branch, Trotskyist cell, Labour Party ward (or, in Shaun Woodward’s case, Conservative association"

Shawn Woodward is a friend of Luke Redgrave, son of Corin Redgrave...does it count as Trotskist relation?!

Ian Bone is reporting that 17 out of the 24 people offered places in Brown's Cabinet are either ex-public school or ex-Oxbridge, and frequently both.

What a beautiful egalitarian society we live in. Equality of opportunity and all that.

And who the hell is Jacqui Smith?!

Wikipedia doesn't even have a picture of her though I first typed in 'Jackie Smith' and thought momentarily our new Home Secretary was an ex professional American football player.

So, John "Brown will make a f*cking awful Prime Minister" Hutton has been shuffled from the DWP to Business and Enterprise. Well, he couldn't exactly be sacked as he has been doing Brown's bidding over the Welfare Reform Act and Freud Review.

And Blears is now Communities. Ahh, poor old Ruth K....

Chief Whip: Geoff Hoon

What does it take to get rid of him already?

Beyond my worst nightmares. Has to be the most right-wing Labour Cabinet EVER.Shaun Woodward Northern Ireland?? Jacqui Smith Home Secretary?? Christ almighty. And, er,nice to see Cruddas getting some recognition......(OK I wasn't nice about him but I assumed given his excellent standing in the DL contest that brown would take note. And he obviously did.....)

I think that the shape of new Cabinet shows at least two aspects of Gordon Brown's character: his political paranoia and leadership style

the political paranoia comes from the fact that he has few major "competitors" in the new Cabinet, and this is reinforced by bringing in relatively inexperienced people who will have to defer to his judgement and bossiness

additionally, if something goes wrong he can always say they were inexperienced they made a mistake, we'll do better next time

an alternative view is that they're fresh blood and will invigorate politics, which I somehow doubt

Well given the fact that Miliband was the closest to Brown in the betting for the leadership and he's got the biggest promotion,I dont think thats necessarily true Modernity.
Who's not in the Cabinet that might be a competitor (Reid and Clarke were never even close)

Tim,

point taken,

I think with Milliband it is a simple case of LBJ's notion:

"It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in"

one of 24 is not much, Brown's problem is balancing out his political paranoia with the necessity of having a functioning Cabinet, so he cannot necessarily reject talented individuals but won't want to generate too much competition

Who has he excluded that could be a competitor?

keep your friends close and your enemies closer-promote your enemy to the most difficult job.

Shaun Woodward for NI is an odd one - not exactly a step up. It's the Poison Dwarf for Communities, I see. Lucky old Salford. Prises for Benn, Johnson and Hain, so that's all the DL contenders... nearly. And look, there's Bev Hughes for services to satire.

Chief Whip: Geoff Hoon

What does it take to get rid of him already?

I never really understood the phrase 'useful idiot' before Geoff Hoon. I wouldn't have thought he'd be much cop as a Whip, but who knows.

Don't get me wrong, I loathed the Blair presidency with a passion, but I don't think I've seen a Cabinet lineup this uninspiring since Callaghan's time.

I've got a post on this in the works for MoT, but as I read the reshuffle there's some pretty sharp manoeuvring about one or two of the cabinet appointments in how the line up against the Tories.

The Justice/Home Secretary combo of Straw and Smith is an effective downgrade in importance for the Home Office, especially is Smith keeps her head down below the parapet and stick to straightening out the messes rather than issuing the traditional crap Friday press releases.

That effective pushes Basher Davis down the pecking order in terms of profile, which ain't going to go down well with him.

Splitting education leaves Cameron with the option of giving Two Brains half his old job or moving him on, right after the grammar school spat, which makes it difficult to move him without there being some negative briefing as payback for pissing of the Thatcherite faithful, unless he gets a plum job, which'll piss the Thatcherites of even more.

Johnson to health is trouble for Cameron as Lansley's such a cretin he made Patsy look good in the Commons. Johnson is by all accounts a bit of slippery bugger but has a good line of patter when it comes to placating the professionals, which will play well at heath.

Kelly's in a Ministry where the Opus Dei thing is irrelevant, unless she starts dispensing blessings to JCBs.

All Woodward has to do is babysit Paisley and McGuinness/Adams and referee the odd fight.

Milliband (D) has Blair on the loose in the Middle East and the UN guy who makes a career out of pissing off the Yanks, so he's in a kill or cure situation.

The Poison Dwarf speaks fluent and incomprehensible management bullshit like a pro - and so does most of local government so that's match and the regional minister thing is part to piss off the English Parliament lot and part to pull heads in at the Government Offices, which will choke off some of Blears' ground.

Oh, and Buff's a cockroach and widely thought a grovelling toerag to those above him and a bullying thug and major boor to those below, which makes him the perfect Chief Whip. Dumb and dull-witted but takes orders - perfect NCO material.

The view from Scotland;
http://tinyurl.com/ypq3zy

Come on Susan, come on Luke, united at last but sadly in this foolish assertion that this is the most right wing cabinet ever.

This assertion that this is the most right wing cabinet ever is frankly ridiculous.

No Reid, no Clarke, no Milburn, no Blair, no Hewitt, no Blunkett. No Hodge for that matter.

Agree with comments about Buff. He will be a lamentable Chief Whip and Nick Brown will really be doing the work.

The PLP despise Hoon, hence his nickname.

Who gives a stuff, really?

Geoff Blears Kelly or Tessa Straw Baroness.

You write as though there is any difference between any of these scum.

They is all capitalist pig dogs and come the revolution bang bang bang and George Galloway will lead the people to a glorious freedom

'Newnight' reported Hutton's youthful indiscretion - he was a Tory student.

Just to correct my cowardly besmircher above, I give no quarter to that lowlife Galloway either.

I was at a party last night at which there were several LP types who, like social inadequates, put on the News at 10 and either fluttered approvingly or turned up their noses and twittered disdain when news of each member of the cabinet was announced. One bloke did a sort of mini pirouette to release tension as he learnt his hero had not been selected.

The woman I was talking to seemed a little alarmed when she noticed that I was cocking half an ear to listen. I rescued the situation by comparing those captured by the glow of the screen, indeed LP members generally, to those blokes you used to see at the very end of train platforms noting down engine numbers.

She may have been utterly disinterested, as most are, because of the sheer remoteness of these people to her life, but likewise I find the above comments, labouring over near indetectable nunaces of difference between ministers, perverse - as I said, they're all capitalist party scum.

I'm pretty sure Denham bought me a drink at LPYS conference in 1983 or 1984. I remember a bloke, about his age and looks, and a CLPD or LCC type and who had also been (or was to be) a LP candidate for a Southampton constituency being rather too friendly to an open Trot like me as we jointly bemoaned the stitching up by Militant of some debate and I played the game of seeing just how Left I could get him to be just to be polite - not very, as I recall.

I confess this now as I hope such public display of regret will make it easier for me if I had to ever explain to a drumhead court martial about why I consorted with the enemy in my youth.

Wikipedia claim Hutton was an active member of the Tory Association at Oxford.

I'm rather surprised that John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw and former NOLS chair hasn't yet advanced his career. If Hoon can, he can.

And when he does I'm going to see how much the Mail wil pay me for what I have.

I suspect everyone's already seen this, but here's the Shaun Woodward I knew, time back way back. I grow old, I grow old.

I read somewhere that Shaun Woodward was actually having second thoughts about defecting to Labour.

But when he expressed this Labour threatened to spill the beans to the Tories about his talks with them, making his position impossible. So he defected.

Yes, leaving Cruddas out seems a bit odd, you'd think there'd be some attempt to incorporate him, as it is he's now a useful pole of attraction for the left to organise - something Blair never had to contend with, an opposition outside the Cabinet.

One slight problem: Cruddas is not really much of a leftist, so he's unlikely to let himself be a "pole".

Not much of a worry to Brown, but I do hope the new PM has taken heed of Cruddas' healthy vote in the Deputy Leadership contest: although not a leftist, Cruddas did articulate some concerns of interest to the left, such as affordable housing and inequality, and got good support.

It's a constituency that would have swung to McDonnell in a leadership vote, and he would have got a respectable vote as a result: hence no leadership contest.

I give no quarter to that lowlife Galloway either.

Who the fuck do you think you are? Napoleon? The drumming of hooves getting a bit loud inside your head is it? You're in no position to offer or deny anyone "quarter".

My husband is a Treasurer/Financial Manager of a very large FE college and he is very depressed about the changes that have been wrought. He feels that they spell the death of FE. By splitting the Education Ministry between 'Schools' and 'Skills etc' and putting the funding for the latter back onto the local authority believes this to be a recipe for disaster. We're just hoping that he can hang on until the end of the year when he will be 50, and therefore if his college is closed down he'll be able to access his full pension. I don't think the personnel are important, it's what they are going to do, like the faithful little foot-soldiers that they are.

BBC is reporting Cruddas turned down a government job - maybe playing a long game - outside the tent pissing in - or genuinely not wanting to get into government. Certainly, he is exactly the sort of eprson the left needs to be able to swing into their camp.

Spot on about FE. My other half is an FE teacher and I work in an Adult Education college. We've already seen a worrying drift in recent times from education to skills and it seems that FE is now going to be entirely treated as a "skills provider" and funding will be targeted as such. It could spell the end of lifelong learning as we understand it. Plenty of retraining and "upskilling" opportunities though. Yuk.

George Galloway gave a very interesting interview on BBC News 24 yesterday afternoon saying that unlike Blair, Brown is an honourable man, and that he hopes that Brown succeeds because we don't want the Tories to win the next election.

Thats odd because all over his many chat shows he repeats the line "Brown and Blair are two cheeks of the same arse".
A part of Galloway still hopes to return to the Labour Party.
But he needs to know that its the finacial stuff that got him expelled as much as the pro Saddam war stance.

Galloway has also said that, although Brown and Blair are two cheeks of the same arse, he would always prefer the left cheek to the right cheek.

Galloway in ass fussiness is as plausible as Galloway in cash fussiness.

Re: FEs. My gaff is just next to Suffolk College, which is due for a massive expansion: part turned into Uni, and what of the 'rest'? I notice they have halted building work at the end of my street, short of funds, or some kinda explanation.

I don't really give that much of a toss, but the creeping plants by the College site that obstruct my way to Library and the Vaults are really - after all these inondations - growing massive.

I do wonder if there is some funding crisis brewing here.

As for 'ass' what is it, other than a donkey type animal? Explicate....

Given Digby Jones now one of Gordon's chosen, is brown the right cheek???

Exactly Susan - it's becoming increasingly clear that Brown is actually to the right of Blair.

Terrifying, eh?

Owen,

hahahahahaha

Some of us where telling you this years ago. But would you ever listen?

Brown hasn't come to consort with the hard left. He's come to bury you.

LotB - Believe it or not, I never actually had any illusions in Brown - I wrote an article in Briefing a year ago arguing Brown was to the right of Blair - and neither did most on the Labour Left. Why do you think we ran a candidate?

Glad to see you've stopped referring to Our Great Leader as 'Gordon'. Ugh.

South Paw

I hope you'll be selling your story to a paper that recognises the NUJ.
Of the London-based red tops that's just the Express and the Star.

If it involves Princess Di on Big Brother you'll be quids in.

Miles,

It was a comment about an unlikely event but your point is interesting. In such a circumstance would you discriminate between the Mail and Express? I don't know. And who'd thought it would be Desmond who recognises the NUJ rather than the others.

Also an interesting story in today's Guardian where the Mirror union, the British Assoc of Journalists, makes a craven appeal for more cash whilst being keen to reassure that their claim is for less than a third of the bonus that the Mirror Group CE is paid! (and with profits at £80m!)

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2114575,00.html

That's what you get with a breakaway moderate union (and too many 'real' ones as well).

Southpaw

Desmond recognises the union because the workers on the Express and the Star threatened to strike when he took over in 2001.

A lesson to us all.

As the Charity Commission alluded to.
Someone in New York is prepared to talk about the OIL for Food and Galloway.
No way he's going back into the Labour Party.

Perjury Charges.

Southpaw

It's doing my head in that I must have known you 20 odd years ago and can't work out who you are. Can you drop some clues? (Or just email me. It's irrelevant to the tasks of the proletariat, I know. But I'm one of those people who sits at the imdb duing movies because it drives me mad if I can't remember what I've seen people in before). I promise not to tell anyone.