A cabinet of all the talents
At Munich airport I purchased the Daily Telegraph to be greeted by the headline 'lean, mean fighting machine' in reference to the new Conservative shadow cabinet. Given the headline what followed was bound to be a disappointment but here, for what it's worth, is my view on it all.First, when the best leader you can come up with when the whole party is momentarily focused on winning the general election is Michael Howard (whose main claim to fame, his period as home secretary, actually saw a 22% increase in violent crime), you can't really expect much from a shadow cabinet.
Thus second, cutting it down to a smaller size was the only thing he could do. Once Hague, Portillo and Clarke refused to take part he really only has one or two competent colleagues.
Three, and even they aren't that competent. Oliver Letwin as shadow chancellor?! Oh dear, oh dear, which is a shame given he was quite good (by the standards of his colleagues) in his previous position. Instead we get the dreadful David Mclean [non-stealth edit -- I'm still pretty sure that I was mislead by either the FT, Telegraph or Independent -- but actually Maclean (I can't even spell it right) remains Chief Whip], a man so right-wing when he was a minister Michael Howard used to have to censure his speeches.
So overall a pretty poor show, even though he only had 165 Mps to choose from (incidentally the BBC says that in one way or another 100 have been given jobs!!!!).
posted by Matthew @ 11/12/2003 04:03:00 PM
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