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Reshuffle thoughts...

• Michael Crick
• 2 Jul 07, 12:20 PM

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the Cabinet reshuffle was former Newsnight producer , though I can't help feeling it's no longer really a full Cabinet job. Peter Hain, after all, combined Northern Ireland with Wales, and that was before Stormont got going again this May, which presumably means there鈥檚 now a lot less to do. Still, Shaun Woodward has offered to do the job for free. Given that he only quite the Conservative Party less than eight years ago, the recent defection of Quentin Davies (watch his Newsnight appearance here) and the promise of further Tory recruits, perhaps Mr Woodward鈥檚 real role is as minister to encourage defections.

And Gordon Brown displayed a certain ruthlessness in not placing two of his closest allies round the cabinet table. Nick Brown has to make do with being Deputy Chief Whip, having held the job of Chief Whip a few years ago, though he鈥檚 now been made Minister for the North as well, and claims to be happy. And what has Stephen Timms, formerly Brown鈥檚 number two as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, done to deserve demotion? He鈥檚 now lost his Cabinet place to become minister of state at the ludicrously named .

Then we had the rather underwhelming parade of 鈥渁ll the talents鈥� 鈥� who鈥檝e agreed to become junior ministers: Sir Mark Malloch Brown, Sir Digby Jones, Sir Ara Darsi and Sir Alan West. They鈥檒l all become lords, though it鈥檚 interesting that they鈥檙e all already knights of the realm, and both Malloch Brown and Darsi had agreed to join the Labour Party. Sir Alan West told me he hadn鈥檛 yet decided whether to join Labour (and given his Home Office security job he鈥檚 got more pressing things to consider right now), while Digby Jones insists (contrary to what I said on Newsnight on Thursday) that he won鈥檛 be joining Labour, despite Gordon Brown asking him to do so. Indeed, Sir Digby won鈥檛 even say if he鈥檒l vote Labour in future, though once he becomes a lord, his ability to vote will be confined to non-Westminster elections.

The reshuffle of the lower ranks was extremely dull. Indeed, there are so few interesting changes and so few dramatic new names that one almost gets the impression that Gordon Brown was so diverted by the car bombs on Friday that he got fed up with the reshuffle and simply decided most people could carry on doing what they did before. There are a handful of appointments from the 2005 intake, such as (the first Muslim minister), and the former Treasury civil servant (a former girlfriend of Tory Education spokesman David Willetts), but the list is more notable for the unusual number of retreads 鈥� including , and . And despite reducing the number of women in Cabinet from eight to five, Gordon Brown鈥檚 government now contains 38 women in all, which must be an all-time record.

Interesting to see a Manchester United fan, , has been made Minister for Sport (though he also supports Bradford City). I hope he realises it鈥檚 a bit of an end-of-the-line job 鈥� how many sports ministers since the post was created in 1964 have ever gone on to anything higher? None, so far as I can remember. But perhaps Mr Sutcliffe can now do something about securing an honour for one of United鈥檚 all-time greats, , who was also recently voted the greatest Scotland player of all time. In a world where even the most mediocre of footballers seems to get an honour these days, Denis hasn鈥檛 even had an MBE.