Recess Monkey is pleased to see Margaret Beckett in the role of Foreign Secretary - but a number of correspondents have asked why.
Well, she’s been careful since 1994, slowly consolidating her position and ensuring that any thime something has gone wrong, a junior minister has been around to carry the can. Furthermore, there’s something about her presentation that merits a higher degree of public trust than that enjoyed by many of her colleagues. She’s seen as being light on spin, goes on holiday in a camper van and has never been known to spend £7,500 on a hair cut - or any other form of beauty treatment.
But more than this, she has been canny in Cabinet. In the last few years, she has staked her political capital on her opposition to a new generation of nuclear power. If her capital hadn’t been high and backed up with support from the party grassroots, she would just have been sacked, demoted or sidelined.
But despite being known as the Cabinet stumbling block on nuclear power, she judged her position well and stuck to her guns - so Tony Blair’s only opportunity was to move her upwards and away from the portfolios relevant to nuclear power - namely Environment, DTI and the Treasury.
However, now that Beckett is ensconsed as only the second woman ever to hold one of the high offices of state, readers should expect a damascene conversion to the nuclear project. She may not be expected to execute the policy in her Cabinet Role, but she may be needed to sell the policy to the Labour grassroots.
Not to do so may be seen by Number 10 as “ungrateful” and Beckett’s political capital won’t save her forever if that is the case.
editor[at]recessmonkey.com
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At least she’ll help out with the Iran situation…
J Swan said this on May 7th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Not quite sure that anyone who’s experience of the world has been from the inside of a camper van is really the right person to be Foreign Secretary myself. Presumably she’s never been much further than a caravan park at Margate.
matt said this on May 7th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Would you suppose Ernest Bevin - not a perfect Foreign Secretary by any means, but one of the most significant and accomplished figures in the histories of both the Labour Party and the Foreign Office - had ever been much further than Margate before he got the job?
Gregg said this on May 8th, 2006 at 12:16 am
I tend to agree with RM on this one.
Howler Monkey said this on May 11th, 2006 at 7:13 pm