Like Kenneth Williams' Caesar in Carry on Cleo (the one British costume film WCH actually likes) the knives, it would appear, are out for poor old Shaun Woodward.
Promoted to the Cabinet in the summer for the now incongruous-sounding role of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, both Kevin Maguire in his New Statesman column and the Telegraph’s Rosa Prince both reckon the socialist MP for St.Helens South is toast in the next reshuffle.
The Tory-hating PM doesn't appreciate his trips down Memory Lane in Cabinet meetings, we are informed, reminiscing what his old mucker John Major would have done when his back was against the wall.
But it’s a bit rich for Gordon Brown, or anyone else in the party, to have a pop at the Tory turncoat (clearly WCH is exempt) after being quite happy to welcome him with open arms and drop him into a safe Labour seat before the 2001 general election as a "dog whistle" to Tory voters. Woodward's no angel, but in comparison to the MP he replaced, the unloveable Gerry Birmingham, he's Nelson Mandela.
And Woodward was a good junior minister in Northern Ireland, bringing in a rule that stopped families paying any more that 3% of their domestic income in water charges. A small measure, granted, but not one any UK minister has had the balls to make.
I have posted previously that Woody should be made Party Chairman. Here’s why:
The Party needs a good frontman; someone reliable to communicate the Government’s case. At the moment we are short of decent talent in this department. It needs to be someone tough and silky; and let’s face it, casting an eye around the Cabinet table doesn’t turn up much in the way of silk.
Jacqui Smith just looks flaky. Darling is narcoleptic. Yvette Cooper is tetchy. Ruth Kelly sounds like a WPC making an appeal on Crimewatch. Purnell and Andy Burnham aren't good enough communicators. While Ed Balls has all Gordon Brown’s worst habits plus a few of his own to boot.
Meanwhile Harriet Harman – job sharing as party chairman and Leader of the House and the person nominally tasked with raising the party standard aloft on the Today programme - is simply too plodding and dull-witted to articulate the Government’s case properly.
No, much as it galls a class warrior like me to say it, the man for the job is Shaun Woodward. He’s not got too much on as Northern Ireland Secretary, so make him party chairman as well.
Crucially, he’s English and speaks fluent Tory (as you’d expect!) so useful in checking the rise of Cameron and the Etonic Kittens.But he’s also a tough old media pro who knows how to handle himself. And that, dear reader, we need.
In a year when the economy could start to sink and our fortunes tank, we have to have someone of ability putting our case. Woodward is the best qualified person to do that. Fact.
If we can swallow our principles enough to parachute him into a safe Labour seat, then getting some practical benefit out of him is hardly any worse.
Use him, that’s all I’m saying.
WCH
Friday, January 4, 2008
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