New Labour cronies

The list of Cabinet ministers who have had no life experience beyond SW1 is rather frightening. Let me give several examples. We have four Great Offices of State; The Prime Minister, the Chancellor, The Foreign Secretary, The Home Secretary.

Alistair Darling has absolutely no experience of economics. He hasn't worked in finance, banking or economic analysis and forecasting. Yet, in the worst economic situation since the 1930's, we have a man in charge of our economic affairs at the Treasury who trained as a lawyer! Gordon Brown too was bereft of economic experience. Both Brown and Captain Darling are career politicians. Surely, even in good times, someone trained as an economist or at least someone with business experience should be in charge of the Treasury.

The last person to have an economics degree and be Chancellor was Nigel Lawson I believe. And he also worked as a financial journalist. Norman Lamont worked as an investment banker. I've never bought into the idea that Kenneth Clarke was a good Chancellor. He was merely competent. Norman Lamont reacted very quickly after the ERM debacle, putting in place the new monetary framework. He established the quarterly Inflation Report. He established the monthly meetings between the Chancellor and the Bank of England Governor. He also introduced the inflation targetting regime. Recovery was already under way when Clarke became Chancellor, and Clarke did something that he always accused Brown off, he took credit for the tough decisions and hard work of his predecessor. There is one exception to this rule however. Sir Geoffrey Howe, one of the most formidable and tough Chancellors of the 20th century. It was his experiment with monetarism that helped bring inflation down from 20% to 3%. Howe trained as a lawyer, but he was very well versed in economics, particularly the Friedmanite Chicago School. He is the exception to prove the rule.

Now, I move on to the Foreign Secretary, a grand, very well respected government position, currently occupied by the hapless and ridiculous David Miliband. There should be specific qualifications required to be Foreign Secretary. One should have military or diplomatic experience. If not that, one should have experience of working abroad and advising foreign governments or businesses. William Hague will be an exceptional Foreign Secretary. He has had real life experience beyond Westminster. David Miliband has followed the life path of the typical New Labourite stooge. He left university and joined a think-tank, the pretentiously named 'Institute for Public Policy Research.' He was a policy analyst there. He hasn't worked in the private sector. He hasn't worked abroad. He then moved from the IPPR to become Tony Blair's Head of Policy and developed the 1997 manifesto. He was then parachuted into a safe seat in South Shields. He was environment secretary, and now foreign secretary. It is a disgrace that a man so obviously unqualified is allowed to occupy one of the most prestigious posts of government in the world. And because of this, he has managed to offend the Indian government by refusing to obey diplomatic protocols.

He has a disturbing lack of foreign policy knowledge. Labour MP's and ministers (with the exception of Kim Howells) seem to be completely clueless in foreign policy, whether it be the history of the areas of interest, and they seem to ignore the geo-political and economic context. Iran could have easily been diplomatically crushed when oil prices crashed because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has funded pork barrel schemes based on oil prices and future expectations. The head of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee is always bereft of foreign affairs experience. He was a Trade Unionist. Both Miliband and Gapes are hideously anti-Israeli. They believe the rubbish that is spouted by the hard and soft left about the ''occupation of Palestine'' and the oppression of the Palestinian people. Israel should be our strongest ally in the Middle East, but if we keep treating that proud and noble nation like occupiers and terrorists, then we don't deserve to be Her friend.

James Purnell is another who has no experience of life outside of politics as is;

1) Andy Burnham
2) Lord Mandelson of Everything
3) Geoff Hoon
4) Shaun Woodward (treacherous turncoat)
5) Yvette Cooper
6) The disgusting Ed Balls
7) Jim Murphy
8) Douglas Alexander
9) Ed Miliband
10) John Denham

Contrast this with the work experience of the Shadow Cabinet, which is filled with industrialists and businessmen.

http://dailyreferendum.blogspot.com/2009/04/cabinet-vs-shadow-cabinet-previous.html

In politics, we should have experienced men and women on both sides of the house. Decades ago, the Labour side was filled with Trade Unionists, miners and workers in the old heavy manufacturing industries (steelworks etc). The Tory benches were filled with people from business or the military. The Liberals weren't full of people at all. We are in the most serious and dangerous economic circumstances in 80 years, so we need the most experienced Cabinet we've ever had. But there is no chance of that happening with Brown. He has filled his Cabinet with sycophants and party drones to weak to challenge his dwindling authority. Cameron has a very experienced shadow Cabinet. He could bring in people like John Redwood, John Whittingdale, Peter Lilley, Brian Binley etc. John Redwood would make an excellent Chancellor one day.