Successive Prime Ministers have made the House of Lords their whipping boy whenever they reshuffled Ministers. Gordon Brown is no exception, and the consequences of his latest game of musical chairs looks bad both for the Government and for the House.
We knew that Lord (Jeff) Rooker wanted to retire from the Front Bench, after a long period of excellent service both to the Departments he has served in and to the House itself. He will be sorely missed, not least for his habit of talking straight, avoiding Ministerial gobblegook and false promises. His departure makes all the more foolish the unnecessary and thoughtless changes to other key Government spokespersons.
The removal of Baroness (Cathy) Ashton to Brussels (in place of the newly anointed Lord Mandelson of Spin) also signals the end of her time as Leader of the House. She enjoyed almost unprecedented respect from Peers of all Parties and has been such a very considerable success that it seems the Prime Minister is taking a huge risk in exporting her at this juncture. He should expect much more difficult treatment from the Lords from now on – not least on the 42-days without charge proposals, which are already as unpopular as they are illiberal. Her replacement by Baroness (Janet) Royall, who has only a short record as Government Chief Whip, will not be popular either, since the Leader of the House is expected to be much less partisan than one would expect of a former Chief Whip. (I should know!).
On the bright side, Lord (Philip) Hunt’s promotion is to be expected, as a very safe pair of hands, and Lord (Willy) Bach is rightly back in the thick of things, having been unfairly made the scapegoat for Margaret Beckett’s follies in DEFRA.Yet Lord (Andrew) Adonis has been transported away from his own special subject – education – on the rumour that he could not see eye to eye with his less experienced boss, Ed Balls.
The overwhelming impression is that the Prime Minister made his changes to the Lords ministerial team as an after-thought, with little regard to the effects on dynamics in the House, or of the skills and knowledge each of the Peers concerned possess. If this weakens Brown’s Government in our chamber, at a tempestuous time in the run up to the next Election, more fool he. His new Cabinet pudding looks no more appetising than the old one, and even then our House seems to have been allocated the leftovers.
I read on the EUtopia blog that Baroness Ashton had been appointed as Britain’s new European Commissioner, not that I’m very well informed in these matters, but he seems unhappy about this, mainly over lack of EU experience and being an unknown.
You also argue that the Government may have been weakened, and point to the 42-days thing, but do you forsee any other areas that could unravel for the Government because of these appointments?
“She enjoyed almost unprecedented respect from Peers of all Parties and has been such a very considerable success that it seems the Prime Minister is taking a huge risk in exporting her at this juncture.”
Perhaps we should launch an appeal to try to save her for the nation, and introduce a temporary export ban until we have an opportunity to raise some funds ! Maybe this is just a ‘softening-up’ exercise before telling us the news that the Parthenon Marbles are on their way back to Greece..
On a slightly more serious point, does this mean the Baroness has to relinquish this title for good, even though she may only be in Europe for a year or so until the General Election ??
I read somewhere that Gordon Brown has agreed to take Tony Blair back into the cabinet, thereby completing the circle of death, dishonesty and disgrace that they have wrought on the Country.
Or maybe I just dreamt it.
We await with interest Baroness Ashton’s personal views on her move. I think she can be more of her own person in the new job and will no doubt use her charms and personal attributes to good effect.
What you say is succinct and perceptive. Your party has already acknowledged the austerity to come but such austerity has for some time existed within the body politic of New Labour.
They have nothing to lose in anything they do whether it is appropriate or otherwise.