Cameron is putting the final touches on his Cabinet, with some interesting choices in the junior positions, notably Tracey Crouch as sports minister and Rory Stewart as Defra minister. Is he silencing potential troublemakers, given how seriously Stewart is treated on defence matters? Or is he trying to be big and open to former critics? Time will tell. The last few days have seen near-hysterical warnings issued over new secretaries of states – mostly on Michael Gove's support for hanging at the MoJ and John Whittingdale's criticism of the BBC at DCMS – but the Cabinet so far is broadly in line with Cameron's rather more centrist One Nation speech outside Downing Street on Friday. There was plenty of opportunity for him to put in place a far more right-wing government, but he's kept in largely unchanged and those changes he has made have not been overly confrontational. The proper right-winger have mostly been put in the Commons (Chris Grayling as leader of the Commons, Mark Harper as chief whip) seemingly to keep their fellow headbangers in line. So far, there are signs Cameron may be serious about governing from the centre-right, rather than the Tory backbench right, although we've said that before. He does tend to capitulate to demands from within his party. Again, time will tell. In today's edition we turn our gaze to Labour's troubles, with a piece on the continuing obsession with Brown vs Blair, an in-depth look at the party's London performance and an assessment of CHuka Umunna's chances for the leadership. Meanwhile, a social worker tells us that they'll keep representing the disenfranchised, even under a Tory government and we take time out to mock Nigel Farage's Putin-like unresignation. | |
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