Friday 29 June 2007

Who ordered the veggie burger?

Gordon Brown has summoned his Cabinet Ministers for another meeting in No 10 - the second inside 24 hours.

This time they will be discussing the pulsating issue of constitutional reform. Before Barnett formula fetishists out there miss a heartbeat, I should point that the agenda is slightly wider.

The new Prime Minister wants to restore trust in the Labour Government elected two years ago (and, by the by, win the next election).

Apparently, Ministers were sent a 39-page document to study overnight, not that Gordon will be testing them on the contents later.

Today's meeting will discuss ways of reconnecting the elected with the electors, possibly leading to changes which leave people with "a better sense of what it means to be British and a British citizen".

The new Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, is driving through the constitutional reform agenda a decade after the Government began changing the UK's constitutional architecture.

He told Today on BBC Radio: "It's impotant that we have a great debate about what it means both to be to be Scottish, Welsh, English and Northern Irish as well as being British".

We're also expecting a reshuffle of the middle and lower ministerial ranks as Gordon Brown continues to form his "government of all the talents".

Lord Malloch-Brown, newly-ennobled formerly right-hand man to Kofi Annan at the UN, is not, as far as I know, a Labour Party member.

Those of you who have followed the saga of Assembly coalition politics in Wales will appreciate the irony of the UK Government installing non-Labour Ministers ahead of their arrival in Cardiff Bay.

There's another interesting appointment at the Department responsible for farmers - yes, vegetarian Hilary Benn is the new Environment Secretary.

The experiment of putting a veggie in charge of farming has been tried before - in Wales - and was not an unqualified success.

Who said Gordon Brown doesn't have a sense of humour?

1 comment:

Gareth said...

Looks like Barnett Formula fetishists have something to celebrate.