Rolling blog on the reshuffle (continued)

5.08pm: Ian Austin and Angela Smith will be Brown's Parliamentary Private Secretaries.

5.06pm: Baroness Scotland is the new Attorney General, and Lord Grocott is Lords Chief Whip and Captain of the Gentlemen at Arms

4.57pm: As well as having a Minister for the North, ministers have been appointed to adopt regions. Caroline Flint and Liam Byrne are amongst those given roles.

3.34pm: Nick Brown is said to be Deputy Chief Whip and.... Minister for the North!

1.55pm: Andy Burnham is Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Beverley "Visa" Hughes takes charge of Children and Youth Justice.

1.39pm: Mark Malloch Brown joins the FCO as a junior minister for the small matters of Africa, Asia and the United Nations. This is a telling appointment, because as Kofi Annan's former deputy at the UN he was a strong critic of the US. He spoke at the last Conservative conference about global poverty.

1.36pm: Tessa Jowell has lost her Cabinet status but retains responsibility for the Olympics.

1.30pm: CCHQ are on the ball - they've already released a dossier of the failings of most of the new Cabinet members. Click continue on this post to read it.

1.21pm: Ed Miliband will join his brother at Cabinet meetings, having responsibility for the Cabinet Office.

1.17pm: John Denham is back in the Government with Innovations, Universities and Skills.

1.14pm: Yvette Cooper has Housing

1.11pm: Tory defector Shaun Woodward has been appointed Northern Ireland Secretary.

12.54am: Question marks remain over Yvette Cooper, Stephen Timms and Tessa Jowell. Housing, Northern Ireland, Europe and The Duchy of Lancaster are amongst the last positions up for grabs.

12.25am: More women appointees - Baroness Scotland is new Attorney General and Baroness Ashton is new Leader of the Lords.

12.20am: Des Browne stays on at Defence, and also takes on Scotland. Adam Boulton says 20 of 22 positions have changed hands.

12.17am: Jack Straw confirmed as the Justice Secretary

12.10am: Baroness Williams talking to the BBC confirms that she hasn't been offered a ministerial position, instead being asked to take up some sort of unpaid, unwhipped, advisory role on WMD - subject to Menzies Campbell's approval.

12.05am: Ed Balls gets one half of the former education portfolio - Schools & Children

11.54am: Hilary Benn gets the Environment portfolio.

11.52am: Confirmation of this morning's speculation that Geoff Hoon will get Chief Whip and Harriet Harman Leader of the House. Will there be a Deputy Prime Minister?

11.49am: Hazel Blears takes up Ruth Kelly's former role as Communities and Loval Government Secretary, another Blairite kept in.

11.44am: Ruth Kelly takes up Douglas Alexander's former role as Transport Secretary, the second woman confirmed so far.

11.36am: John Hutton is the new Trade and Industry Secretary. Rumours that the DTI will be scrapped look less likely now, although Sky are calling him Business and Enterprise Secretary.

11.33am: Jacqui Smith's big promotion to the Home Office has been confirmed by the BBC.

PREVIOUS UPDATES HERE

CCHQ's pre-prepared dossier:

ALISTAIR DARLING – Chancellor of the Exchequer

• Responsible for 2,500 Post Office Closures. Darling is responsible for the disintegration of the country’s Post Office network. He recently announced the closure of 2,500 Post Offices over the next two years (The Post Office Network: Government response to public Consultation, DTI, May 2007).

• Responsible for Pensions Grab. As Gordon Brown’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1997, Alistair Darling helped develop and defend the calamitous £100 billion pension tax raid. Shortly after the policy was announced, Darling said misleadingly: ‘The steps that the Government are taking will stand this country and its economy in good stead in the years to come’ (Hansard, 9 Jul 1997, Column 976).

• Responsible for Pitiful 75p Rise for Pensioners. As Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 1999, Darling took the decision that state pensions would only go up by 75p during the next year. Age Concern called this ‘derisory’ and a handicapped pensioner chained herself to the railings outside Labour Party headquarters as a protest about this miserly rise (Financial Times, 10 November 1999).

• Admission of Failure. When asked recently what he thought were the greatest mistakes of the last ten years, Gordon Brown said: ‘I think the 75p pension rise, we could have done that far better’ (BBC TV, Sunday AM, 13 May 2007).

• Yesterday’s Man. Darling has been in the Cabinet continuously since 1997. He has previously held the posts of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Social Security), Secretary of State for Transport, and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. 

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Brown has been close to Darling since they worked together on the Shadow Treasury team from 1992 to 1997. Darling later worked under Brown as a minister at the Treasury, where he was described as ‘Brown’s right-hand man’ (The Herald, 7 July 1998).

ED BALLS – Minister for Schools and Children

• Responsible for Pensions Grab. Balls was Chief Economic Adviser to Gordon Brown in 1997 when the fateful decision was made to abolish the dividend tax credits for pension funds. This has taken an estimated £100 billion out of pension funds (The Sunday Telegraph, 15 October 2006).

• Caught out by the CBI. Balls publicly defended the policy even when it was revealed that Treasury officials had advised against it. He went so far as to claim that the policy had been advocated by the CBI (BBC R4, Today, 30 March 2007). The Director-General of the CBI, Sir Richard Lambert, completely denied this accusation, saying: ‘This is a convenient bit of spin by the Treasury. There is no record of any kind that we lobbied for this’ (Sir Richard Lambert, Director-General, CBI, The Guardian, 2 April 2007).

• Admission of Failure. Balls said last year: ‘after nine years, governing is getting more difficult. We have raised expectations – and not always met them. Blaming the past is not as easy as it was a decade ago. And we know too that there have been difficulties and disappointments and decisions which have divided progressive opinion in our country’ (Ed Balls, Speech at Compass conference, 9 June 2006).

• Yesterday’s Man. Balls has worked for the Labour Party since 1994 and has the same role at the Treasury since 1997.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Balls has been Brown’s closest political ally since he was appointed as his economic adviser in 1994. He has worked alongside Brown in the Treasury for the full ten years of this Labour government. Officials at the Treasury admit that they ‘had to go to Ed Balls to find out what the Chancellor was really thinking’ (Senior Civil Servant, Dispatches, Channel 4, 14 May 2007).

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER – Secretary of State for International Development

• Responsible for Scottish Elections Fiasco. As Secretary of State for Scotland, Alexander was responsible for the organisation of the recent Scottish elections in which 3.5 per cent of the ballots were disqualified. This is an unprecedented number for an election in the United Kingdom (The Daily Telegraph, 10 May 2007). The Scotsman later revealed that Alexander had received clear advice that the ballot papers would confuse electors (The Scotsman, 8 May 2007). He was forced to come before Parliament, where he refused to apologise for the mistakes made and to accept an independent inquiry into the election arrangements (The Guardian, 9 May 2007).

• Secret Plans for National Road Pricing. Alexander recently published a Draft Transport Bill that was conceived as a secret plan to ‘pave the way’ for national road pricing. A letter from Alexander to the Prime Minister leaked to The Sunday Times revealed that he intended for the draft Bill to ‘help to pave the way for a national road pricing scheme in the medium to long term’ (The Sunday Times, 6 August 2006).

• Yesterday’s Man. Alexander has worked for the Labour Party for the majority of his working life. He started working for the Party in 1990, was elected as an MP in 1997, ran the 2001 general election campaign, and has held major ministerial positions since then.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Alexander was born in Renfrewshire, Scotland and his father was a Church of Scotland Minister. He studied history at Edinburgh University, where his tutor was Paul Addison, who also tutored Gordon Brown (The Herald, 19 May 1995). He worked as a researcher and speechwriter to Brown from 1990 to 1993. He was labelled as a ‘Brownite’ as early as 1997, when Brown handpicked him for the seat of Paisley South (Scotland on Sunday, 5 October 1997).

YVETTE COOPER – Housing Minister

• Responsible for Home Information Packs Debacle. As Housing Minister, Cooper was responsible for the Government’s attempt to introduce Home Information Packs. The introduction of HIPs went against the independent advice of both the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the Law Society. When the High Court passed a ruling against the HIPs, Cooper was forced into a humiliating climbdown and delayed their introduction.

• Admission of Failure. Ruth Kelly, Cooper’s senior at the Department for Communities and Local Government, wanted Cooper to scale down the measures, but Cooper refused and even threatened to resign over the issue (The Times, 17 May 2007). However, when the Government was forced to delay the introduction, it was Kelly, not Cooper, who made the humiliating statement to Parliament.

• Yesterday’s Woman. Cooper has held ministerial posts in this Government since 1999. She worked for both Gordon Brown and John Smith in the early 1990s.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Cooper worked as Brown’s economic researcher. She is married to Ed Balls, Brown’s former Chief Economic Adviser, and has been described as a ‘close friend of the Brown family’ (BBC News online, 30 November 2006).

DAVID MILIBAND – Foreign Secretary

• Responsible for Botched Nuclear Consultation. The High Court found that Miliband’s consultation on building new nuclear power stations - carried out during 2006 - had been ‘manifestly inadequate’, ‘misleading’, ‘seriously flawed’ and ‘procedurally unfair.’ (The Times, Law Reports, 20 February 2007). Renewable energy generation stands at just under 2 per cent of our total energy generation , one of the lowest rates in the world (UK Energy in Brief, DTI, July 2006). The Government’s original target was 5 per cent by 2003 (New and renewable energy - Prospects for the 21st century, Department of Trade and Industry, 2000).

• Responsible for Chaos in the Rural Payments Agency. Miliband has presided over huge delays in payments to farmers. Farmers were promised that CAP payments for 2005 would begin in February 2006, with 96 per cent of payments paid by the end of March 2006. However, by mid-April 2006, just £362 million of the £1.6 billion had been paid. Even when payments began, chaos continued: almost a third of the payments for 2005 proved to be incorrect (David Miliband, Oral Statement, 22 February 2007).

• Yesterday’s Man. Miliband has been intimately involved with this Government since 1997. He was Head of Policy at Downing Street and has held several major ministerial positions.

JAMES PURNELL – Secretary for State for Culture, Media and Sport

• Responsible for Dome. While he was a Special Adviser to Tony Blair on Culture, Media and Sport from 1997 to 2001, Purnell was intimately involved in the Millennium Dome. He later wrote: ‘the last time I heard those arguments [abour cost], I was listening to ministers argue about whether we should build the Millennium Dome’ (The Times, 29 November 2003).

• ‘Olympics will be Wrong for London’. Purnell launched the strongest criticism of the Olympics by any politician yet, saying: ‘it would be wrong for London and for the rest of Britain’. He also compared the Olympics to his involvement in the Dome, saying: ‘The question is the same as the Dome - is it the best way of spending that money? If not, any government decision could be opposed by those saying well, if you hadn’t bid for the Olympics ... just as they did with the Dome. Instead of staging the Olympics, we could use the money to build more than 2,000 primary schools’ (The Times, 29 November 2003).

• Admission of Failure. As Minister of State for Pensions, Purnell accepted the criticisms of the Government’s policy that led to the loss of 125,000 personal pension schemes, when he told Saga Magazine: ‘Many pension victims were planning to [campaign] at the Labour Party conference this September. I understand why they are campaigning. If I was in their position I would be too’ (Saga Magazine, October 2006).

• Yesterday’s Man. Purnell has spent the great majority of his working life in Labour Party. He started working for Blair in the 1980s and was later a Special Adviser in Downing Street. Since 2001, he has held several ministerial positions.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Purnell is part of the ‘Primrose Hill gang’ that includes leading Brownites such as Douglas Alexander and Ed Miliband (The Daily Telegraph, 6 January 2006). He attended Oxford University at the same time as Yvette Cooper (The Guardian, 23 May 2005) and was a member of the ‘Demon Eyes’ football team with fellow Brownites, such as Ed Balls (The Times, 9 July 1999). 

JACK STRAW – Secretary of State for Justice

• Presided over Huge Increases in Crime. Jack Straw is the longest-serving Home Secretary under this Labour government. By the time he left the Home Office, violent crime had increased by 21 per cent and an extra 415,935 crimes were recorded annually (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2005/06, July 2006, Table 2.04).

• Responsible for Claims About WMD. As Foreign Secretary in 2003, Straw made the case for the invasion of Iraq. He said in a statement to Parliament after the invasion: ‘As for Iraq's programmes to develop chemical and biological weapons – to develop weapons of mass destruction – we know that those programmes existed’ (Hansard, 10 April 2003, Col. 405).

• Yesterday’s Man. Jack Straw is one of the very few members of Cabinet, along with Alistair Darling, who has served continuously as a member of top table since 1997. He has been Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, and Leader of the House.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Straw worked with Brown on the Shadow Treasury team as early as 1987. He continued his close relationship as Brown as a key New Labour figure during the early 1990s. He served with Brown for ten years as a member of Blair’s Cabinet. This year, he has served as Brown’s campaign manager and wrote a letter to Labour MPs encouraging them to nominate Brown for leader of the Labour Party (The Daily Telegraph, 27 March 2007).

JACQUI SMITH – Home Secretary

• Hypocrisy Over NHS. Smith supported the Government’s NHS cuts, but has joined protesters several times in their campaign to save maternity services at the Alexandra hospital in Redditch, including handing a 16,000 signature petition to hospital chiefs (The Guardian, 29 December 2006).

• Yesterday’s Woman. Jacqui Smith has held ministerial positions in this government since 1999.

DES BROWNE – Defence Secretary

• Responsible for Fiasco of Servicemen Selling Stories. Browne approved the decision for the marines captured by Iran to sell their stories to the media (BBC TV, 16 April 2007).

• Admission of Failure. Browne gave a televised statement in which he said: ‘although this was a navy decision I have to take responsibility for it, and I don't seek to hide behind the fact that the Navy made the decision. Ultimately, the buck stops here’ (BBC TV, 16 April 2007).  He was brought to Parliament to account for this failure and said: ‘I have expressed a degree of regret that can be equated with an apology and if [the Shadow Defence Secretary] wants me to say “sorry” then I am happy to say sorry’ (Hansard, 16 April 2007, Col. 29).

• Yesterday’s Man. Browne has been a minister since 2001. He has previously Gordon’s deputy at the Treasury as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Browne has been close to Brown since they worked together at the Treasury. He has accompanied Brown on his visits to Afghanistan and Iraq.

PETER HAIN – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

• Involved in Deal to Give up British Sovereignty in Gibraltar. Hain was a vocal advocate of joint Spanish-British control of Gibraltar (BBC News, 9 November 2001).

• Admission of Failure. Hain has frequently criticised the Labour government’s record during his deputy leadership campaign. He said recently 'A month from now Labour will have a new leader and frankly we all need to up our game. We've been playing like the reserves recently. In a host of areas we've allowed the Tories to make the running' (Peter Hain, PA News, 27 May 2007).

• Yesterday’s Man. Hain has been a minister throughout this Labour government. He has been in the Cabinet since 2002. 

ED MILIBAND – Cabinet Office Minister

• Responsible for Failure to Meet Targets on Child Poverty. As Minister of the Third Sector, Ed Miliband is responsible for the involvement of voluntary sector in public services, with particular emphasis on tackling entrenched poverty.

• Admission of Failure. Miliband said recently at a charity conference on poverty ‘The fall in child poverty is short of the target we set ourselves, it’s true’ (Speech at Barnardo’s annual conference, 20 March 2007).

• Yesterday’s Man. Miliband has worked for the Labour Party since the early 1990s and has served in Government since 1997. He served as an economic adviser in the Treasury for eight years.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Miliband started working for Brown in the early 1990s and later worked for him at Treasury as a Special Adviser and Economic Adviser. He has been present at meetings at Downing Street since early 2006 to discuss the handover from Blair to Brown (New Statesman, 20 March 2006). Brown handpicked Miliband for the safe seat of Doncaster North in the 2005 election (The Daily Telegraph, 21 March 2005).

HARRIET HARMAN – Leader of the House

• Responsible for Cutting Benefits for Lone Parents. As Secretary of State for Social Security, Harman caused a minor rebellion on the backbenches when she announced cuts in benefits for single parents of over £10 per week (The Times, 3 December 1997). Protestors were dragged out of the Commons’ public gallery shouting ‘you should be ashamed of yourself’ (The Herald, 2 December 1997).

• Admission of Failure. Harman was sacked from the Cabinet just one year after her appointment in 1997.

• Double U-Turn on Iraq. Harman voted for the war, then declared that it was a ‘mistake’ and the Government should apologise (BBC TV, Newsnight, 29 May 2007). But the day after she was appointed as Labour’s deputy leader, she backtracked and falsely claimed she had never called for an apology at all (BBC R4, Today, 25 June 2007).

• Yesterday’s Woman. Harman has been an MP since 1982, she has already been in the Cabinet and served in several major ministerial roles.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Brown is widely credited with securing Harman’s appointment as Secretary of State for, over Blair’s preferred candidate, Frank Field (The Guardian, 19 March 2001). Harman worked directly with Brown on the Opposition Treasury team in the 1990s.

ANDY BURNHAM – Chief Secretary to the Treasury

• Responsible for NHS Cutbacks and Closures. Andy Burnham has been the Minister of State at the Department of Health responsible for ‘delivery and reform’. This  reform programme has led to the £1.3 billion gross financial deficit in the NHS last year (Department of Health, 20 February 2007) – the worst financial performance in the history of the NHS – and the closure or cutback of 23 Accident and Emergency departments and 43 maternity units.

• Admission of Failure – ‘NHS Values Up For Grabs’. Burnham recently admitted the failings of his own reform programme when he wrote in a report to the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt: ‘There is a feeling of nervousness among NHS staff about being on a journey without knowing where the end point is ... Some are concerned that the values of the NHS are in some way up for grabs’ (The Guardian, 14 February 2007).

• Closely Involved in the Dome and Wembley Shambles. As a Special Adviser at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Burnham was heavily involved in both the Millennium Dome and the greatly delayed new Wembley Stadium. His CV used to refer to his involvement in these projects, but he selectively erased references to them in 2001 (The Independent, 17 February 2001).

• Yesterday’s Man. Burnham has spent almost all his working life with the Labour Party and he has been intimately involved in this Government since 1997. He was a Special Adviser at DCMS and he has worked in junior ministerial roles under senior Labour figures such as Tessa Jowell and Patricia Hewitt.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Burnham is part of the ‘Primrose Hill gang’ that includes leading Brownites such as Douglas Alexander and Ed Miliband (The Daily Telegraph, 6 January 2006). He was a member of the ‘Demon Eyes’ football team with fellow Brownites, such as Ed Balls and James Purnell (The Times, 9 July 1999). 

HAZEL BLEARS – Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

• Responsible for Overseeing Rising Crime. While Blears was a Minister at the Home Office with responsibility for ‘crime reduction’, violent crime actually increased by over 10 per cent, or an extra 100,000 violent crimes every year (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2005/06, July 2006, Table 2.04).

• Admission of Failure. Blears recently said we haven’t quite manage to re-engineer the justice system so that people have confidence in it… People in the community do not feel that we have tackled crime and anti-social behaviour as much as they would have wanted’ (Hazel Blears, BBC TV, Question Time, 14 June 2007).

• Yesterday’s Woman. Blears has been a Minister in this Labour government since 2001.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Blears is known to be extremely loyal to the Party leadership. She said well before Gordon Brown any leadership contest: 'I don't know whether there is going to be a leadership contest or not. What I have said all along is that if Gordon Brown is going to be our next Prime Minister I think he would be absolutely excellent as Prime Minister' (Hazel Blears, BBC R4, The World at One, 28 December 2006).

ALAN JOHNSON – Secretary of State for Health

• Responsible for Spinning Education Stats. Alan Johnson was criticised last September by the independent Statistics Commission after spin doctors tried to influence the date on which damaging school test results were published and ‘bury bad news’.

• Admission of Failure. Johnson recently admitted that Labour had failed on reducing social mobility, saying: ‘The hard truth is that social mobility has declined. It is actually getting harder people to escape poverty and leave the income group, professional banding or social circle of their parents’ (Alan Johnson, Labour’s Choice, Essay for Fabian Society pamphlet, May 2007).

• Yesterday’s Man. Johnson has been a minister since 1999. He has held positions across four government departments.
  

JOHN HUTTON – Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise

• Responsible for Rising Child Poverty and Missed Targets. Child poverty rose last year by 100,000 before housing costs (the Government’s preferred measure) and 200,000 after housing costs. Child poverty now stands at 2.8 million before housing costs and 3.8 million after housing costs (Households Below Average Income Survey, DWP, March 2007). Hutton missed he’s  target last year to reduce child poverty by a quarter from 1998-99 levels. The Government is now falling even further behind its target of halving child poverty by 2010.

• Responsible for £2.6 Billion Fraud. Last year, £2.6  from 2004-05 (Fraud and Error across the Benefit System, DWP, February 2007). £0.7 billion was lost through fraud but even more was lost through error - £1.0 billion through customer error and £0.8 billion through official error (ibid).

• Yesterday’s Man. Hutton has been a minister in this Labour government since 1998. He has served under David Blunkett and Alan Milburn.
  

RUTH KELLY – Secretary of State for Transport

• Responsible for Sex Offenders Scandal. As Education Secretary in January 2006, Ruth Kelly presided over the scandal of sex offenders being allowed to work in schools (Mail on Sunday, 8 January 2006). Ruth Kelly approved more registered sex offenders to work in schools than any other Secretary of State since 1997, when the Sex Offenders Register was introduced.

• Admission of Failure. Kelly was forced to admit to Parliament that 88 people with cautions or convictions for sex offences have not been banned from classrooms; and then admitted that sex offenders could become foster parents, and did not know how many how many people on the sex offenders' register work as foster parents (The People, 19 February 2007).

• Responsible for Cuts to Special Schools. At the end of Kelly’s time as Secretary of State for Education, there are 146 fewer maintained special schools than there were in 1997 (Special Educational Needs in England, January 2006, DFES, June 2006).

• Yesterday’s Woman. Kelly has held ministerial positions in this Labour government since 1998.

• Member of Brown’s Clique. Kelly worked directly under Brown when she was a minister at the Treasury for three years. She had previously worked for Nick Brown, one of Gordon’s closest political allies.
  

BARONESS SCOTLAND – Attorney-General

• Responsible for Extradition of NatWest Three. Baroness Scotland had the official responsibility for the signing of the widely criticised Extradition Treaty with the United States that led to the extradition of the ‘NatWest Three’ (Lords Hansard, 31 March 2003, Column WA92). Sir Digby Jones and others described the treaty as ‘non-reciprocal’ and said: ‘We are extremely concerned that the current arrangements for extradition to the US expose British business people to unique and serious risks’ (BBC News online, 29 June 2006).

• Admission of Failure. Baroness Scotland initially defended the treaty but was subsequently forced into a humiliating backtrack when she went to United States to renegotiate the treaty in light of the trial of the NatWest three (BBC News online, 10 July 2006).

• Responsible for Overseeing Rising Crime. As a Minister at the Home Office, Baroness Scotland has responsibility for the ‘crime reduction strategy’. However, during her time there, violent crime has risen by 21 per cent (Home Office, Crime in England and Wales 2005/06, July 2006, Table 2.04).

• Yesterday’s Woman. Baroness Scotland has held ministerial positions in the current Labour government since 1999.

Comments

[Andrew Woodman]

Jacqui Smith and not John Denham. Interesting. She doesn't have a big majority.

[malcolm]

I can't quite understand why Denham has not progressed further in his career.Along with Frank Field and Kate Hoey he is one of the more principled Labour MPs.
Does anyone know much about Jacqui Smith? She hasn't been chief whip long enough really to make her mark and I am not aware of anything she did previously.It's certainly a big promotion for her,hopefully she won't prove to be as hopelessly out of her depth as Beckett was at the FO.

[NigelC]

Why is Kelly getting another big job? She now gets responsibility to deliver the infrastructure to support the massive housing plans she oversaw at DCLG. I can see another mess

[ACA]

Hilary Benn to DEFRA....

to be confirmed very soon.

[Scotty]

Malcolm, I admire John Denham. IIRC he resigned from Blairs government over Iraq and maybe he has refused to come back into the fold until that situation changes?

[bluepatriot]

Brown needed a woman in one of the top three jobs malcolm. If John Denham had been Joanna Denham he'd have got the post!

[Anne-Marie]

Yes! Us Worcestershire folk can have a go at unseating the Home Secretary! I suppose that's assuming she lasts longer than the previous holders of the post.
Redditch will certainly be one to watch on election night!

[Edward]

Quite; Jacqui Smith will be a big decapitation target in Redditch next time round. Perhaps that's why she's in the job though, so that the Government takes electorally sensible decisions in Home Affairs?

[malcolm]

You're probably both right Scotty and bluepatriot. It's not exactly radical at the moment is it? But then Brown does not have much talent to play with. He's stiffed Johnson ( a potential rival) with health but I most interested to see who will get Defence. Please ,please Gordon if you read this (highly likely!) don't keep Browne there or give it to your unbelievably useless namesake and friend Brown (Nick)!

[bella]

so who are we betting Cameron will move to match them?
I don't think Kelly will be too awful; rumour has it that Cooper was responsible for the housing mess...although she'll probably get something big too.

[Editor]

I understand there'll probably be a Tory reshuffle on Monday/ Tuesday, bella.

[malcolm]

Guido reporting that Shirly Williams is not going into government.

[malcolm]

Well this a joke. Browne stays at Defence and also takes ministerial responsibility for Scotland therefore relegating Defence to a less than full time role. Unbelievable!

[Graham Checker]

Love the way the BBC is reporting this.. OK, I hate it.

"New faces in huge Cabinet revamp"

What utter b*ll*cks.

Headline should be; "Brown reshuffles and promotes Labour ministers in modest reshuffle"

But that would be too honest, wouldn't it?

Exactly the same faces playing musical chairs - almost all of them were in the cabinet, or high-profile ministers, before.

BBC spinning for Labour as usual.

God, I despise that lot.

[Scotty]

Malcolm, like you I am gobsmacked especially on the day it is announced we have lost 3 more soldiers. With the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, well words fail me!!!!!

[Scotty]

This appointment is all about the politics of keeping Brownite allies in post while trying to balance the Scottishness of the cabinet. What a crass decision.

Blair has been questioned by the police for a third time. Iain Dale has more.

[RobD]

Defence and Scotland in one job?

Are Brown and Browne planning a Civil War we don't yet know about?

[Simon George]

So far so underwhelming

If this the new-heard-the-need-for-change-surprise-packed-government-of-all-the-talents then pass the double expresso and keep it coming, I am going to need it.

[JimJam]

Blair questioned for 3rd time by Yates :)

[Andrew Woodman]

So we have Defence and Int Dev being downgraded as Brown feels ministers (who have both been proven to be incompetent)can job share. A woman with no Home Affairs experience (or indeed head of Government department experience) promoted to one of the toughest jobs in Government. Kelly who's messed up at 2 departments gets the wreckage which is Transport policy. Balls who should feel at home with other child like debaters at Education and Buffoon as chief whip.

And this is all the talents!!!

[David Cooper]

Ruth Kelly for Transport, after her floundering ineptitude in her previous roles?Good. Now's the time to give her merry hell over the hospital pass of road pricing, knowing that this was very much Douglas Alexander's baby and he's moved on.

[Victoria Street]

David Davis said he wanted to continue covering the whole Home Affairs brief and these appointments are unlikely to change his mind. He will feel confident he can face down both Straw and Smith without breaking too much sweat. It helps, of course, that he can call them both Jack.
And if he needs help, I'd suggest bringing back Patrick Mercer as his deputy to reprise the Homeland Security aspects.

[Scotty]

Anyone else find Kay Burley extremely rude when she interviewed Liam Fox?

[GT]

Only one cabinet minister represents a London seat and there is one from Wales,but none from SE, SW or East Anglia. Loads from Scotland and Greater Manchester.
I think we can guess where the money is going for the next few years!

[Mike Turvey]

The Defence and Scotland together may be more canny than we give him credit for. Defence is one of the key competences that binds Scotland into the Union. It is a source of pride and unity. Double-hatting Browne like that may create a minister who is very able when it comes to promoting the future of the Union.

Brown had a long chat with Her Majesty - who knows, perhaps she had a word in his ear about assuring the future of the Union...

[James Burdett]

Who has got Wales? Is it still lumped in with Northern Ireland?

[Scotty]

Mike Turvey, I think Brown has been quite transparent in the way he has tried to give his Scottish pals jobs which would be seen to cover the whole of the UK. But we need a full time and committed minister for Defence, and as Liam Fox pointed out it will send a very worrying message to the armed forces at a time when they are overstretched and under incredible strain.

[Andrew Woodman]

Mike, I don't think Brown will be able to spin his way out of it with that excuse. Splitting the duties is bad enough, but to keep an imcompetent minister in place because he's part of your clique is unforgivable.

[watervole]

Have they got a Deputy PM? Unless I missed it, it is noticeable that despite being Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman has not been identified in this role. Or has this tempting morsel been offered elsewhere?

[RobD]

Excellent stuff from CCHQ, we need to press home that this is the same bunch of failures who have been running things for the last 10 years, just without the charismatic front man.

[Liberal Tory]

Does anyone know much about Jacqui Smith? She hasn't been chief whip long enough really to make her mark ....It's certainly a big promotion for her

She's hard as nails I'm told, by someone who has fallen foul of her. You don't succeed as Chief Whip (as she apparently has) without being tough.

Also, yes it's a big promotion, but not unprecedented - for those of us old enough to remember Maggie's last Home Secretary, David Waddington - she appointed him HS straight from Chief Whip.

[Lavandula]

Surely a mistake to combine Defence with Scotland. Brown obviously gives defence a low priority. Ammunition for Cameron?

[charie]

GT, fair enough but where do most Labour MPs represent? Err.. Scotland, Greater Manchester and the north of England.

How many MPs are there from Scotland, Wales, Greater Manchester or even North England in our Shadow Cabinet? 44% of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet represent seats in the South East (outside London) but the Sout East has only 16% of the UK's population. It's the nature of our political system where support for different parties varies according to geography.

[Andrew Woodman]

Beverley Hughes in now!! Cameron should be able to rip this to pieces at PMQ's next week.

[Michael McGowan]

Nice bit of rapid rebuttal from CCHQ. What a threadbare list of retreads.

[malcolm]

Is that it? Without wishing to make a party political point (as if!) it's hardly a 'government of all the talents' is it?
Presumably if we really do have a second defector this person will be going for a fairly uninfluential job either in government or in a quango.

[Liberal Tory]

Hmmm, nothing in the rapid rebuttal about Hilary Benn, John Denham or Shaun Woodward?

Does this mean we have nothing bad to say about them?

[Mary Hinge]

Lavendula - maybe it's a sign we need to be defended from Scotland.

[TomTom]

Does anyone know much about Jacqui Smith?

She's a teacher so if she visits Jack Straw's Department she can probably visit former pupils continuing their education in H M Prisons.....mind you having Jack Straw back in charge of prisons with judges to boot means we are in for real politicisation of everything.......no doubt we are entering the End Days of the Realm as Straw brings the whole structure crashing down

[ToMTom]

Lord Malloch Brown joins the FCO as a junior minister for the small matters of Africa, Asia and the United Nations.

He also lived in a house owned by George Soros..........In 1983, Malloch Brown contemplated running as an SDP candidate in the 1983 UK General election.......In 1986 Malloch Brown joined the Sawyer-Miller Group as the lead international partner. While at Sawyer-Miller he was amongst the first communication consultants to use US-style election campaign methods for foreign governments, companies, and public policy debates.

Quantum Fund announced the appointment of Mr. Malloch Brown as the hedge fund's vice president.

http://www.nysun.com/article/53955

George Soros and Mark Malloch Brown deserve congratulations for finally sealing their now famous friendship.

In a letter to shareholders of Mr. Soros's Quantum Fund last week, the globe-trotting financier and the former international civil servant announced the appointment of Mr. Malloch Brown as the hedge fund's vice president. He also will serve as vice chairman of Mr. Soros's philanthropy arm, the Open Society Institute.

Like the case of a man making a longtime concubine an honest woman, Messrs. Soros and Malloch Brown's relationship was a source of whispering and resentment for years and is now legitimate. From now on, the public has no business prying into any arrangement Mr. Soros makes to compensate Mr. Malloch Brown.

The Open Society Institute can now harness Mr. Malloch Brown's zeal for helping the poor, and Quantum can use his financial talents and organizational skills. Mr. Soros stands to receive an excellent return for his outlay, however much he pays.

Things were a little murkier during the years that Mr. Soros utilized Mr. Malloch Brown's talents and skills to yield influence over public organizations. From the World Bank, Mr. Malloch Brown moved on to serve as the administrator of the United Nations Development Program and then across the street to Turtle Bay, where until December he was deputy secretary-general.

While his friend was UNDP chief, Mr. Soros collaborated with the development agency on many projects, especially in the former Soviet satellites, where the Open Society Institute advanced such worthy causes as instilling democratic values.

UNDP sources involved in projects in places like Kyrgyzstan and Georgia say that whenever the UNDP's bureaucracy would try to set a course of action that conflicted with the institute's agenda, Mr. Soros or his representatives would overrule them. Since Mr. Malloch Brown appointed Kalman Mizsei as the UNDP director for Europe and the former communist bloc in 2000, Mr. Mizsei has been seen as Mr. Soros's man at the agency.

In several remote countries, Mr. Soros's representatives share an office with UNDP staff. Sometimes residents have no idea where the Open Society Institute begins and the U.N. agency ends. The publicly financed agency and the private philanthropy, which is tied to a profitable hedge fund, are barely distinguishable.

Any attempt to clear up the confusion was hardly helped by the fact that the UNDP boss, Mr. Malloch Brown, practically lived with Mr. Soros. As I reported in 2005, Mr. Soros rented Mr. Malloch Brown a property adjacent to his own mansion in the upscale Westchester County town of Katonah.

Several news outlets have recently revisited the story, portraying it as a right-wing attack on Mr. Soros, a favorite punching bag. My reporting was a "vicious slander," Mr. Malloch Brown wrote to me over the weekend during a long email exchange that I initiated and he graciously answered.

But was it?

"Sir Mark pays a market rent," the Financial Times wrote last week, citing no source for the claim. In fact, real estate agents in the neighborhood told me at the time that the five-bedroom, nearly 5-acre property could fetch much more than $10,000, Mr. Malloch Brown's monthly rent — which was less than the $12,500 a month a previous tenant paid.

In an e-mail, Mr. Malloch Brown explained that he and his family pay for their utilities, unlike the previous tenant. But the fact remains that for half a decade, while real estate values were rising around the New York area, Mr. Malloch Brown was able to maintain a round figure rental arrangement that was slightly lower than that of a previous tenant.

As we have learned from the political skirmish now engulfing the World Bank, international institutions find it hard to set up rules separating private friendships from the public interest.

In an attempt to revitalize the UNDP, Mr. Malloch Brown had stressed the need for more cooperation with the private sector on development issues. This is not necessarily a bad idea, as long as clear rules are created to separate the public interest from that of private bodies. Mr. Malloch Brown's relationship with Mr. Soros made any attempt to do so only murkier.

And so he deserves congratulations now, as a straight financial arrangement has been struck between two talented powerhouses who obviously work together well.

[malcolm]

So unless I'm much mistaken Des Brown is the only cabinet minister who has remained in the same job. Does Brown really think that Browne has done the sort of job that warrants this? A very black day for our Armed Forces.

[John F]

Your not the only one that despises the BBC Graham Checker, I don,t know if you live in Scotland but the BBC here are basically another branch of the Socialist clan and even more to the left of BBC elswhere.
The BBC has been spinning this Brown farce ever since Blair decided to go however I can,t understand the praise for Brown from the likes of the Telegraph and Mail.
I like the rapid response from the Tory HQ, keep it up Andy, now get Tory spokesmen to really climb into the likes of Burely, Naughtie, Humphries, and the rest of the labour supporting media, time for Foxie, etal to say "your Labour party" be sarcastic, tough and yes nasty because they are all the enemy, no more Marquis of Queensberry rules, its time to get tough.

[John F]

Your not the only one that despises the BBC Graham Checker, I don,t know if you live in Scotland but the BBC here are basically another branch of the Socialist clan and even more to the left of BBC elswhere.
The BBC has been spinning this Brown farce ever since Blair decided to go however I can,t understand the praise for Brown from the likes of the Telegraph and Mail.
I like the rapid response from the Tory HQ, keep it up Andy, now get Tory spokesmen to really climb into the likes of Burely, Naughtie, Humphries, and the rest of the labour supporting media, time for Foxie, etal to say "your Labour party" be sarcastic, tough and yes nasty because they are all the enemy, no more Marquis of Queensberry rules, its time to get tough.

[The Huntsman]

There is one notable item coming out from the reshuffle: that Des Browne has been left at Defence but is to combine the post with that of Scottish Secretary.

One of the State’s main tasks is to maintain its armed forces so as to preserve the independence of the nation, the freedom of its people, the integrity of its territory, the freedom of its trade and to act in pursuit of the political and diplomatic interests of Her Majesty’s Government. That is a full time job: only once before has this post been combined with another, when the late Winston Churchill assumed it on 10th. May 1940 at a time when circumstances were somewhat different. Now to make it effectively a part-time post is a complete disgrace, especially when the incompetent incumbent is left in post. What sort of message does this send to our Armed Forces? What sort of message does this send to our enemies?

This will be seen very quickly to have been a major misjudgement by Gordon Brown and one may predict that it will soon be reversed (shortly after the incumbent cocks up again, one imagines). In the meantime the Tories should be hounding Des Browne as much as possible over his split responsibilities.

[Graham Checker]

Let me get this straight:

PM-Gordon Brown - previous Cabinet Member
Chancellor-Alasdair Darling - previous Cabinet Member
Justice-Jack Straw - previous Cabinet Member (and on the same bloody brief)
Chief Whip-Geoff Hoon - previous Cabinet Member
Commons Leader-Harriet Harman - previous Cabinet Member
Culture - James Purnell - previous Minister of State
Defence - Des Browne - previous Cabinet Member AND in the same job
Development - Douglas Alexander - previous Cabinet Member
Duchy of Lancaster - Ed Milliband - 1st new face (although he was member of previous government)
Education - Ed Balls - previous Cabinet Member
Education (Mark 2) - John Denham - previous Minister of State
Environment - Hilary Benn - previous Cabinet Member
Foreign Secretary - David Miliband - previous Cabinet Member
Health - Alan Johnson - previous Cabinet Member
Home - Jacqui Smith - previous Cabinet Member
Industry - John Hutton - previous Cabinet Member
Leader of the Lords - Baroness Ashton of Upholland - 2nd new face (never heard of her - and prob won't hear much now either)
Community - Hazel Blears - previous Cabinet Member
Northern Ireland - Shaun Woodward - hmm.. hardly a 3rd "new face" but certainly a surprise - still, a previous minister
Transport - Ruth Kelly - previous Cabinet Member
Chief Sec - Andy Burnham - previous senior Minister
Work & Pensions - Peter Hain - previous Cabinet Member

So, after all that, I make 22 member of Gordon Browns cabinet. 16 were cabinet members under Tony Blair - or 73%! 4 were senior ministers and you can really only say 2 are "new faces" - less that 10%.

Pathetic.

BBC headline NOT justified. It's just the same old bunch of jokers..

[William Norton]

Graham Checker:Leader of the Lords - Baroness Ashton of Upholland - 2nd new face (never heard of her - and prob won't hear much now either)

How ungallant, Mr Checker. Lady Ashton is a distinguished former head of Business In The Community, health quangocrat and IIRC Mrs Peter Kellner.

[MikeA]

This has been spun to be earth shattering. In fact it's a pretty modest reshuffling of the deck, bringing is a few Brown cronies and some reorganisation.
Darling - As chancellor will have no independent thoughts and will just do whatever Brown tells him to do. Very dull, what successes has he ever had in government?
Balls - No charisma, comes across on TV as very arrogant. To be tested
Dougie Alexander - I'm told he's actually a pretty nice guy. Didn't listen over road pricing though. Probably one of the more competent NuLab ministers.
Cooper - Incompetent over HIPs, also let Ruth Kelly take the fall so no balls (lol). Saved by marriage to Balls and by being a top Brownite
Milliband D - Is it me, but I'm deeply underwhelmed by this supposed rising star and potential next Labour leader. Clearly did a deal with Brown to become Foreign Sec. Brown to groom him as replacement? Foreign Sec a good role for this
Purnell - Who?
Straw - Pretty odious, a Labour survivor, knows where the bodies are buried. Basher will be happy facing him
Smith - Basher will also love facing her. Will rip her to shreds? She's too nice to be Home sec.
Browne - Truly incompetent. How he hung on other than by being a mate of Gordon's is a mystery. Hatesd
Hain - Truly the most odious NuLab minister. Vain, vacuous, disloyal, untrustworthy and so on. Basically a shit
Milliband E - Arrogant and patronising. Not as effective as big bro, but a key insider and mate of GB
Harman - An ocean going hypocrite (to use Quentin Letts words). Truly awful. How on earth did she get elected?
Burnham - Comes across well, although responsible (with Hewitt) for the disasterous NHS "reforms"
Blears - Hate her. Patronising nanny.
Johnson - Nice guy (supposedly), bit of a spinner though (which of this rogues gallery are not?)
Hutton - Actually has some intergrity, which is rare in NuLab. Suprise! He's competent as well. Really did say "Gordon Brown will make a fuc*ing awful PM, and you can quote me". So balls too. Maybe Brown was making the point that he doesn't bare grudges.
Kelly - Awful. Incompetent. So far out of her depth she's in the middle of the Atlantic.
Baroness Scotland - Fairly competent although did negotiate the totally one sided extradition treaty with the US

[Ash Faulkner]

Davies and Hague will make mincemeat out of Smith and Milliband.

[Graham Checker]

MikeA - beat you to it ;-)

They're almost all useless retards.

The only ones I respect are John Denham and John Hutton.

Otherwise, they're all ar$e-licking careerist idiots.

Seriously, compare them to past bigwigs like Healey, Benn, Hattersley etc.. They may have been outrageous lefties, but they were serious parliamentarians and had some integrity.

[ToMTom]

Miliband will be destroyed by Malloch Brown who knows all the UN political infighting tricks.....this is certainly a way of keeping Miliband very busy watching his back....

[Traditional Tory]

The reaction of most normal people to these appointments will be a massive yawn. I've never heard of many of these people and I'm certain the public hasn't.

OTOH...

‘be sarcastic, tough and yes nasty because they are all the enemy’

‘Basically a shit’

‘Hate her. Patronising nanny.’

‘They're almost all useless retards.’

‘Otherwise, they're all ar$e-licking careerist idiots.’

Don't you think any normal member of the public, reading said 'foam flecked' comments, might be entitled to say;

'They were sooooh right when they called themselves The Nasty Party'

[Geoff]

Yes, but TT the comments happen to be accurate. I'd have been harsher, to be honest.

[The Huntsman]

The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, was interviewed by John Humphrys on ‘Today” this morning. Darling has kept so low a profile in Cabinet in the last couple of years that he has become positively horizontal, so one had forgotten that he is someone who is really not terribly impressive. His most recent outing has been at the DTI, nowadays a non-job given the extent to which the EU now has complete power over our trade policy.

Humphrys was obviously puzzled as to what Gordon Brown meant to change and why, given that Brown has been Government No. 2 for ten years (as Humphrys put it, ‘Domestic Prime Minister’), had Brown not been clamouring all that time for such change.

Darling’s performance was woeful. The kindest thing one could say is that he woffled. Several times Humphrys put to him: “What are you going to change?” This elicited nothing other than a rehearsal of all that has gone before which Humphrys rightly described as “developments of policy, not change”. In other words, a lot of hot woffle.

The interview is well worth listening to. He is clearly not the intellectual equal of Gordon brown (whatever else he may be, Brown is a bright chap) and on this showing one doubts he will be a great success in his new job.

Darling was educated at the Loretto (Scotland’s oldest boarding school), so we have replaced a scion of Fettes with one from Loretto: any one got a run down on where the new cabinet was educated?

[Richard North]

No comment from the BBC, then, that David Miliband is a raving Europhile. As foreign secretary, he will be a key figure in the negotiations for the new treaty. the "Eurosceptic" Brown has appointed a nice "safe" pair of hands for the "colleagues".

[Baskerville]

Editor, we need to keep a very careful eye on these new regional ministers. This looks like election campaigning financed by the taxpayer. I fully expect each to have a large budget to 'explain' the 'successes' of Brown's government in each region via billboards and radio and TV advertising. Don't be surprised if we don't see the appointment of regional 'delivery' Tsars whose full-time role will be to 'counteract' negative publicity and promote the latest government initiative.

[Editor]

Very good point Baskerville. Very good point.

[The Huntsman]

This unhappy piece now emerges onto the scene

“Her Majesty's Government - Ministers for the Regions
28 June 2007
The Queen has been pleased to approve the following Ministerial appointments:
Minister for the North of England and Deputy Chief Whip (Treasurer of Her Majesty's Household)
The Rt Hon Nick Brown MP
Minister for the North West
The Rt Hon Beverly Hughes MP [1]
Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber
Caroline Flint MP
Minister for the Olympics and for London [2]
The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP
Minister for the South West
Ben Bradshaw MP
Minister for the East Midlands
Gillian Merron MP
Minister for the West Midlands
Liam Byrne MP
Minister for the East of England
Barbara Follett MP”

Now what on earth are these people going to do (apart from acquire ministerial cars and the usual snouts-in-the-trough opportunities)?

Britian does not do Gauleiters. And what terrible sin have the decent people of East Anglia done to deserve Barbara Follett?

[Richard Tyndall]

Looks like any hopes we had that they would kill off this policy of regionalisation have been dashed.

Interestingly, still no sign of a minister for Europe. Hoon was in that position but who, if anyone, has replaced him?

[Graham Checker]

"Traditional Tory"

I don't know what the f**k your problem is, but you insult or are rude to virtually every single poster on Conhome.

Why don't you p**s off back to where you came from?

You're clearly a spotty, friendless little nerd who gets his kicks out of his internet alter-ego by insulting anyone and everyone.

You are in no position to lecture anyone given you spend your whole time on this website slagging off the party.

Now, be a good little boy and f**k off.

[Harry Benson]

Jacqui Smith is the minister who unliaterally abolished reference to marital status on government forms back in 2003. The Times reports that she is married.

[michael m]

The ITV news item this evening at 6.30pm on the cabinet changes was clearly written by 10 Downing Street. all sorts of claims were made that totally merged with what No 10 wants us to believe - "9/10" etc. For bias, this all took the biscuit.
There was no contrary views expressed and no comments allowed from any Opposition Parties

Is ITN impartial or not?

[ToMTom]

Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber
Caroline Flint MP

Minister for the North of England and Deputy Chief Whip (Treasurer of Her Majesty's Household)
The Rt Hon Nick Brown MP

Just what was William Hague supposed to be doing ?

[601]

No minister for SE England?

Only London.

Just confirms what we know.

He hates the South East of England as much as the south east hates him.

[Northern]

Jack Straw is to be First Secretary of State according to the Justice ministry website, in addition to being Lord Chancellor. This title is the one used by the 1960s Wilson Government to denote Deputy PM and also held by three who had title Deputy PM (Butler, Hestletine and Prescott). So Jack Straaw is Deputy PM without the expense of a pointless ODPM.

[David Cooper]

Baskerville @ 17.33 - it could also be a sneaky way of trying to legitimise the unwanted regional assemblies. Time for a hard hitting campaign on our side to oppose this?

[malcolm]

I very much hope that Cameron thinks long and hard before he appoints shadow ministers for the regions.England is one unit and should be treated as such.I agree wholeheartedly with David Cooper we should make our opposition to regional assemblies very clear and this would be one way of doing it.

[Andrew Lilico]

Editor - could you please delete the post by "Graham Checker" at 18:37, since this is surely supposed to be an all-ages web-site. (Feel free to delete this boring message at the same time.)

[Richard Tyndall]

Malcolm,

I agree entirely.

Refusing to play ball with Brown's carving up of England would again send a clear message that Cameron has his own vision and won't just let Brown dictate the rules of the game.

[pauline buffham]

Editor I am adding this in support of Andrew Lilico's post of 21:52. There is no need for such language. You may not agree with Traditional Tory's view ~ I happen to ~ but he has every right to express them

[Watervole]

If that is a "cabinet of all the talents", then no wonder Gordon is trying to poach some Tories and Lib Dens! Completely underwhelming.

Vis a vis shadowing this new cabinet, it is always best for a general to choose his field of battle. Cameron should pursue his own agenda, not try to second guess Brown's.

[Hillary]

Fascinating site and well worth the visit. I will be back_