Anything you can do I can do
- 2 Jul 07, 05:31 PM
David Cameron has just announced a new Shadow Cabinet "of all the talents". Actually, he didn't use that phrase but it was clearly in his mind.
He's making Pauline Neville Jones, a career diplomat and former head of the Joint Intelligence committee, a life Peer so that she can become Shadow Secretary of State for Security. Thus, were he so inclined, he could claim that he has a former chair of JIC in his Shadow Cabinet whereas Gordon Brown only has a former deputy Chair of JIC (Admiral West - made the most junior minister in the Home Office last week)
And he's relieving Sayeeda Warsi, a British Born muslim of Pakistani origin of the search for a safe seat by making her a working peer and putting her straight into the Shadow Cabinet in charge of community cohesion. She'll be the first Muslim to sit around any party's top table. Brown, you may recall, hailed his promotion of two young Muslim MPs last week - one became a junior minister, the other a whip.
Brown promoted a woman to the front line in Jacqui Smith. Cameron's now done the same by making Caroline Spelman Party Chairman. The PM promoted young rising stars - Purnell, Burnham et al. Now Cameron's promoted Messrs Gove, Herbert, Hunt and Shapps.
There is, of course, no connection between these two sets of decisions.
