Woodward on the up?
Today's predicts Shaun Woodward could be promoted in an autumn reshuffle, and that this might spell the end of the NIO as part of a much mooted merger into a new department of the regions. I'm still not certain whether this is on the cards ahead of the devolution of criminal justice. However the Belfast Telegraph story picks up on a report late last month in the that the SoS has become an unlikely confidant of Gordon Brown. This is a bit of a turnaround from the same paper's speculation that the millionaire minister would bite the dust.
Either way, the local Tories have been the first out of the blocks to criticise any notion of an NIO merger. Their spokesman David Fry argues that given the fact that the Executive "has not met in ages and the political institutions are still weak" any suggestion that the Cabinet position of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland should be abolished "is extremely foolish".
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