One of the annual rituals of Cabinet reshuffle speculation is the reporting by newspapers of plans to scrap the Wales Office and other territorial departments and create a Ministry of the Nations.
One day it may come true and, as Lee Waters points out, it very nearly did six years ago during perhaps the most botched reshuffle of Tony Blair's decade in power.
You can read Lord Irvine's evidence in full here. The Wales Office - and its Secretary of State - survived to fight another day. Given David Cameron's commitment to cutting the cost of government, it will be interesting to see how long, if he wins power, he retains a full-time Secretary of State.
Showing posts with label Tony Blair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tony Blair. Show all posts
Monday, 2 November 2009
Monday, 13 October 2008
Plaid's lords-in-waiting
Miss Wagstaff reminds us that Lord Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool takes his seat in the House of Lords today while Plaid Cymru's would-be peers are still waiting for the nod.
Miss W suggests a link between the delay in the elevation of the future Lord Wigley and company and Plaid's opposition to the House of Lords.
There may be a slightly stronger link between the delay and Plaid's role in dialling Scotland Yard to report alleged selling of peerages by the Blair Government. (No-one was charged, all denied any wrong-doing etc).
Plaid's Westminister leader, Elfyn Llwyd had raised the issue with the former patronage secretary (aka Government Chief Whip) but progress with Geoff Hoon was slow.
He's now seeking a meeting with his replacement Nick Brown, of whom it is often said he is so loyal to the Prime Minister they share a surname.
Given Plaid's incidental role in helping Tony Blair on his way, perhaps the new Chief will prove more amenable to the nationalists' request for ermine.
Miss W suggests a link between the delay in the elevation of the future Lord Wigley and company and Plaid's opposition to the House of Lords.
There may be a slightly stronger link between the delay and Plaid's role in dialling Scotland Yard to report alleged selling of peerages by the Blair Government. (No-one was charged, all denied any wrong-doing etc).
Plaid's Westminister leader, Elfyn Llwyd had raised the issue with the former patronage secretary (aka Government Chief Whip) but progress with Geoff Hoon was slow.
He's now seeking a meeting with his replacement Nick Brown, of whom it is often said he is so loyal to the Prime Minister they share a surname.
Given Plaid's incidental role in helping Tony Blair on his way, perhaps the new Chief will prove more amenable to the nationalists' request for ermine.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Reshuffle fever abates
Iain Dale reports that the reason Gordon Brown didn't merge the Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland jobs was because he would need to legislate to do so.
A similar problem befell Tony Blair when he tried to abolish the Welsh post some years ago. Only after the Wales Office was placed into what was then the new Department for Constitutional Affairs did No 10 discover numerous statutory references to the Secretary of State for Wales.
(In a legendary cock-up of a reshuffle, the Wales Office itself had briefed that its boss was to be known as the Minister for Wales. The Scotland Office had removed its own nameplate).
I'm not lawyer but I'm not sure the problem is insurmountable. You could use the short-hand description Secretary of State for the Union or Nations Secretary while appointing one person Secretary of State for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Politics is full of unofficial titles - Deputy Prime Minister, anyone - that creep into use, or indeed official titles that are seldom used - First Lord of the Treasury, First Secretary of State.
Perhaps the real reason the merger didn't happen was to do with unfinished business in Northern Ireland and the political damage (to Labour) caused by having a part-time Scottish Secretary.
As things stand, we shall probably have to endure months more of speculation along similar lines in the run-up to the next reshuffle.
A similar problem befell Tony Blair when he tried to abolish the Welsh post some years ago. Only after the Wales Office was placed into what was then the new Department for Constitutional Affairs did No 10 discover numerous statutory references to the Secretary of State for Wales.
(In a legendary cock-up of a reshuffle, the Wales Office itself had briefed that its boss was to be known as the Minister for Wales. The Scotland Office had removed its own nameplate).
I'm not lawyer but I'm not sure the problem is insurmountable. You could use the short-hand description Secretary of State for the Union or Nations Secretary while appointing one person Secretary of State for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Politics is full of unofficial titles - Deputy Prime Minister, anyone - that creep into use, or indeed official titles that are seldom used - First Lord of the Treasury, First Secretary of State.
Perhaps the real reason the merger didn't happen was to do with unfinished business in Northern Ireland and the political damage (to Labour) caused by having a part-time Scottish Secretary.
As things stand, we shall probably have to endure months more of speculation along similar lines in the run-up to the next reshuffle.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Crewe Junction
Top marks to Jon Sopel of the BBC News channel for his opening question to Labour's candidate in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election: "How's the class war going?"
Tamsin Dunwoody, for it is she, was briefly non-plussed by the query, prompted by her party's campaign highlighting the relative affluence of her Conservative opponent Edward Timpson.
"We have a candidate opposing us who lives in a one and a half million pound mansion," Ms Dunwoody, late of the Welsh Assembly, said during a live interview.
That sum would barely buy a wing of Tony and Cherie Blair's latest purchase, a country house once home to Sir John Gielgud. Labour are branding Mr Timpson a toff, employing activists dressed up in top hat and tails to greet him in the constituency.
Cherie Blair's memoirs make much of her humble origins, although her husband went to Fettes - "the Scottish Eton" - which probably makes him a toff in Labour circles.
David Cameron and Boris Johnson have had to downplay their own schooling at Eton for political reasons. Visitors to Britain might think it slightly strange that some parents fork out tens of thousands of pounds buying what they think is the best education you can get, only for the beneficiaries to feel the need to distances themselves from it.
A campaign leaflet stoked up the class war. At least Labour aren't using the by-election to rail against the hereditary principle - probably just as well as Tamsin is the daughter of two Labour MPs and the grandaughter of a Labour general secretary and a member of the House of Lords.
The full list of by-election candidates, should you be interested, can be seen here.
If all this talk of old school ties is making you nostalgic, read this inspiring story about someone who had the misfortune to teach me at (comprehensive) school.
Tamsin Dunwoody, for it is she, was briefly non-plussed by the query, prompted by her party's campaign highlighting the relative affluence of her Conservative opponent Edward Timpson.
"We have a candidate opposing us who lives in a one and a half million pound mansion," Ms Dunwoody, late of the Welsh Assembly, said during a live interview.
That sum would barely buy a wing of Tony and Cherie Blair's latest purchase, a country house once home to Sir John Gielgud. Labour are branding Mr Timpson a toff, employing activists dressed up in top hat and tails to greet him in the constituency.
Cherie Blair's memoirs make much of her humble origins, although her husband went to Fettes - "the Scottish Eton" - which probably makes him a toff in Labour circles.
David Cameron and Boris Johnson have had to downplay their own schooling at Eton for political reasons. Visitors to Britain might think it slightly strange that some parents fork out tens of thousands of pounds buying what they think is the best education you can get, only for the beneficiaries to feel the need to distances themselves from it.
A campaign leaflet stoked up the class war. At least Labour aren't using the by-election to rail against the hereditary principle - probably just as well as Tamsin is the daughter of two Labour MPs and the grandaughter of a Labour general secretary and a member of the House of Lords.
The full list of by-election candidates, should you be interested, can be seen here.
If all this talk of old school ties is making you nostalgic, read this inspiring story about someone who had the misfortune to teach me at (comprehensive) school.
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Last man sitting
From right to left:
Ian Paisley (on his way in May); Peter Hain (gone in January); Tony Blair (out last June); Bertie Ahern (going in May).
Perhaps Martin McGuinness would be kind enough to turn out the lights once his colleagues have left the stage.....
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
2007 review: you know, the sort of stuff that fills up papers at this time of the year
For some, there was an historic inevitability about it. Yet there were rumours of rows behind the scenes, of personality clashes, of long-running battles fuelled by naked ambitions.
But the Spice Girls put it all behind them to reform for the money, sorry their greatest hits tour.
Elsewhere, power changed hands as Tony Blair was succeeded by Gordon Brown.
The year began with an unpopular Prime Minister behind in the polls, his party facing a police investigation over the way it raised funded. The year ends.....well, you can fill in your own punchline.
Gordon Brown entered Number 10 promising to restore trust in politics. Fewer than six months later, he had to admit that donations to Labour had not been lawfully declared. As I write, one candidate in Labour's deputy leadership contest is still trying to find out how an "administrative error" left him unable to declare donations properly.
Mr Brown won praise for his handing of a terror threat, of floods and of foot and mouth disease. He tried hard to reverse his image as a control freak by appointing a "government of all the talents" (GOATS), but his honeymoon ran out when he dithered over the election that never was.
Things got worse. The personal details of almost all Britain's families with children went missing (they still are). It emerged that thousands of illegal immigrants had been cleared to work in security jobs - including one whose job involved guarding the Prime Minister's car.
As these tales of woe emerged, one Labour MP - one of those who tried to force the last leader out a year after he won a mandate for a full third term - accused me of cynicism. The stories of dodgy donations and other cock-ups would be enough to test the idealism of Ulrika Jonsson's latest fiance.
Tony Blair's farewell tour may have dragged on a bit, but he was always newsworthy. The day he announced his departure and the day he went were among the most memorable of my 19 years reporting Parliament.
Dramatic political events happened outside the Westminster village. I still find it hard to believe that Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness work together in government, as they do in Belfast. The SNP's Alex Salmond is First Minister of Scotland; Plaid Cymru share power in Wales.
Some of the trivial stories were, as ever, the most fun. Peter Hain's Aga saga gave me a favourite quote: "At first I was a bit sceptical about the Aga. I thought it was a great big lump. But now I actually think it's fantastic. We found food cooked on the electric cooker tasted very second class."
Mr Hain failed to win Labour's deputy leadership contest but found time to rule out a Labour-Plaid coalition and to complain loudly when the BBC later suggested a deal could happen. Having a posh cooker must help when you have so many words to eat.
The Aga "story" was good for trade. This blog's predecessor, the original-but-now-dormant BBC Wales politics blog, was quoted in The Times, the Evening Standard and the Western Mail. There's honour among bloggers as well as among thieves.
We must not forget Lord Glentoran's role in cheering us all up. The newly-appointed Conservative spokesman on Welsh affairs told us: "As far as the politics of Wales is concerned"as of 48 hours ago I knew absolutely nothing. I now know nothing, plus a bit.
"I know nothing about the politics but I know quite a lot about the geography, having climbed most of the mountains."
Sir Menzies Campbell may have had better years but the former Lib Dem leader was a good sport when a Welsh hack turned up in his party conference hotel to ask him incisive, penetrating questions about the contents of that week's Hello! magazine, featuring Lembit Opik.
Two particularly enjoyable reports featured the unveiling of Lloyd George's statue in Parliament Square and a visit to Gordon Brown's tailor. Yes, Timothy Everest really did say "suits you, sir" (with a little prompting).
The year is ending with a personal milestone: my first child benefit form. Apparently, all I need to do is to send off the form, with our daughter's birth certificate and my bank details, to HMRC in Tyne and Wear.
What could possibly go wrong? Happy New Year.
But the Spice Girls put it all behind them to reform for the money, sorry their greatest hits tour.
Elsewhere, power changed hands as Tony Blair was succeeded by Gordon Brown.
The year began with an unpopular Prime Minister behind in the polls, his party facing a police investigation over the way it raised funded. The year ends.....well, you can fill in your own punchline.
Gordon Brown entered Number 10 promising to restore trust in politics. Fewer than six months later, he had to admit that donations to Labour had not been lawfully declared. As I write, one candidate in Labour's deputy leadership contest is still trying to find out how an "administrative error" left him unable to declare donations properly.
Mr Brown won praise for his handing of a terror threat, of floods and of foot and mouth disease. He tried hard to reverse his image as a control freak by appointing a "government of all the talents" (GOATS), but his honeymoon ran out when he dithered over the election that never was.
Things got worse. The personal details of almost all Britain's families with children went missing (they still are). It emerged that thousands of illegal immigrants had been cleared to work in security jobs - including one whose job involved guarding the Prime Minister's car.
As these tales of woe emerged, one Labour MP - one of those who tried to force the last leader out a year after he won a mandate for a full third term - accused me of cynicism. The stories of dodgy donations and other cock-ups would be enough to test the idealism of Ulrika Jonsson's latest fiance.
Tony Blair's farewell tour may have dragged on a bit, but he was always newsworthy. The day he announced his departure and the day he went were among the most memorable of my 19 years reporting Parliament.
Dramatic political events happened outside the Westminster village. I still find it hard to believe that Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness work together in government, as they do in Belfast. The SNP's Alex Salmond is First Minister of Scotland; Plaid Cymru share power in Wales.
Some of the trivial stories were, as ever, the most fun. Peter Hain's Aga saga gave me a favourite quote: "At first I was a bit sceptical about the Aga. I thought it was a great big lump. But now I actually think it's fantastic. We found food cooked on the electric cooker tasted very second class."
Mr Hain failed to win Labour's deputy leadership contest but found time to rule out a Labour-Plaid coalition and to complain loudly when the BBC later suggested a deal could happen. Having a posh cooker must help when you have so many words to eat.
The Aga "story" was good for trade. This blog's predecessor, the original-but-now-dormant BBC Wales politics blog, was quoted in The Times, the Evening Standard and the Western Mail. There's honour among bloggers as well as among thieves.
We must not forget Lord Glentoran's role in cheering us all up. The newly-appointed Conservative spokesman on Welsh affairs told us: "As far as the politics of Wales is concerned"as of 48 hours ago I knew absolutely nothing. I now know nothing, plus a bit.
"I know nothing about the politics but I know quite a lot about the geography, having climbed most of the mountains."
Sir Menzies Campbell may have had better years but the former Lib Dem leader was a good sport when a Welsh hack turned up in his party conference hotel to ask him incisive, penetrating questions about the contents of that week's Hello! magazine, featuring Lembit Opik.
Two particularly enjoyable reports featured the unveiling of Lloyd George's statue in Parliament Square and a visit to Gordon Brown's tailor. Yes, Timothy Everest really did say "suits you, sir" (with a little prompting).
The year is ending with a personal milestone: my first child benefit form. Apparently, all I need to do is to send off the form, with our daughter's birth certificate and my bank details, to HMRC in Tyne and Wear.
What could possibly go wrong? Happy New Year.
Monday, 9 July 2007
"Whingeing Jock journos"
I'm still working my way through Alastair Campbell's diaries. Here's an entry from 1995 when Tony Blair was leader of the opposition.
"We spent a lot of the day doing Scottish media, which was always risky because when it came to the Scottish press, TB and I were both hopeless at hiding our irritation at them."
Campbell believes the Scottish media found him and Blair irritating because despite their Scottish heritage (Blair was born in Edinburgh) they were viewed as ultra-English by Scottish hacks.
He adds: "There is a 'culture of grievance' element to all the media, but the Jocks have it with knobs on. GB (Gordon Brown) called and TB said to him he'd had a day full of whingeing Jock journos saying they wanted devolution and they wanted no tax and they wanted Scotland to get more money and they wanted to win the World Cup and why was I stopping them?"
No news yet on whether that culture of grievance is confined to Celtic hacks in one part of the UK, but I do still have a few hundred pages to get through.
"We spent a lot of the day doing Scottish media, which was always risky because when it came to the Scottish press, TB and I were both hopeless at hiding our irritation at them."
Campbell believes the Scottish media found him and Blair irritating because despite their Scottish heritage (Blair was born in Edinburgh) they were viewed as ultra-English by Scottish hacks.
He adds: "There is a 'culture of grievance' element to all the media, but the Jocks have it with knobs on. GB (Gordon Brown) called and TB said to him he'd had a day full of whingeing Jock journos saying they wanted devolution and they wanted no tax and they wanted Scotland to get more money and they wanted to win the World Cup and why was I stopping them?"
No news yet on whether that culture of grievance is confined to Celtic hacks in one part of the UK, but I do still have a few hundred pages to get through.
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