by In Wales
Fri Jun 5th, 2009 at 01:52:45 PM EST
Right so, the UK Government is falling apart at astonishing speed. Helen started to chart this in her recent diary but developments have been taking place at such a rate I feel that a round up is needed.
BBC NEWS | Politics | I won't walk away, insists Brown
Gordon Brown has unveiled a reshuffled cabinet and vowed to "fight on" with his "resilient" team to rescue the economy and clean up politics.
But as we all know, saying so isn't going to make it happen.
The list on BBC online has been changing as the day goes on and more resign. Here we have it at 18.20GMT
BBC NEWS | Politics | I won't walk away, insists Brown
NEW JOBS:
Alan Johnson - Home secretary
Andy Burnham - Health
Yvette Cooper - Work and pensions
Bob Ainsworth - Defence
John Denham - Communities
Liam Byrne - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Ben Bradshaw - Culture
Lord Adonis - Transport
Sir Alan Sugar - Enterprise tsar (non-Cabinet post) QUITTING:
John Hutton
James Purnell
Jacqui Smith
Hazel Blears
Geoff Hoon
Caroline Flint
I will not waver or walk away, says Gordon Brown after election drubbing | Politics | guardian.co.uk
In other changes, Downing Street announced:
* Andy Burnham as the new health secretary.
* Peter Hain returns to government as Welsh secretary.
* Liam Byrne as chief secretary to the Treasury.
* John Denham will become communities secretary.
* Bob Ainsworth, the armed forces minister, will be promoted to defence secretary.
* Jack Straw will remain justice secretary.
* Balls will remain as children's secretary.
* Miliband will retain the job of foreign secretary.
* Hilary Benn will remain environment secretary.
* Jim Murphy will remain as Scottish secretary.
Word on facebook status updates tells me that Margaret Beckett, the housing Minister, has resigned too.
In fact, this is all so significant and exciting that BBC online is running live updates of the affair.
BBC NEWS | Politics | LIVE: Brown fights for his future
Headlines: Alan Johnson is home secretary. Alistair Darling still chancellor. Andy Burnham is health secretary. Ben Bradshaw is culture secretary. Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon, Defence Secretary John Hutton and Europe minister Caroline Flint quit. Projected general election vote share: Tories: 38%, Libs: 28%, Lab 23%
The Guardian also runs live blogging on the crisis, watching as Labour is slaughtered in the local council elections to the point of losing its last English council. Cue Conservative leader David Cameron looking very smug indeed. We knew Labour would be punished, I don't know if we can really say this is a surprise.
Labour in crisis live - leadership and elections latest | Politics | guardian.co.uk
Labour in crisis live - leadership and elections latest Andrew Sparrow follows all the latest developments on a day which could make or break Gordon Brown's leadership
The ongoing recent expenses scandal has affected all parties and is very much symptomatic of the British political system, not the sole fault of this Labour Government but Labour have had over 10 years to do something about it. Labour have had over 10 years to do a lot of things that the Labour party should have done. I'm sure that is very easy for me to say in hindsight, I'm sure in practice it wouldn't have been such an easy thing to do, and anything too 'radical' or left wing or smacking of socialism at the wrong time wouldn't have been well received and possibly we'd still be in this position now.
But nonetheless, here we are. It has been the topic of conversation at every meeting I have attended, colleagues keep poking their head around the office door to tell me who has resigned now.
My attention was mostly taken up by an article in today's Guardian focusing on the Women MPs and their 'downfall' since they were first paraded about in 1997 as Blair's Babes:
Madeleine Bunting on why latest events in Westminster have been a disaster for women politicians | Politics | The Guardian
It's been a week in which women have dominated politics; their pictures have been on the front of every paper and TV bulletin. But no one is celebrating: this has been a terrible week for women in politics. Twelve years ago the Labour victory of 1997 brought a new generation of women into politics, and with it high hopes of a transformation of the macho political culture of Westminster. This week those hopes were finally crushed.
I find the article discusses something almost intangible that is all wrapped up in the still entrenched patriarchal power structures of society and politics. Progress wasn't really in the numbers of women MPs but should have been in allowing those women MPs to create change, not just accepting their presence so long as they stuck to the norm and played the right game.
Madeleine Bunting on why latest events in Westminster have been a disaster for women politicians | Politics | The Guardian
In this game, women can never win. If they have a political agenda, they are interfering (Tessa Jowell was bashed for being a "nanny", Harman is now a busybody); if they have no political agenda, they are overpromoted. This stuff is savage and reveals the most unreconstructed and old-fashioned male anxieties about women and power. "There is no doubt the demands on women are more brutal," says Karen Buck, who also stepped down from a government post to return to the backbenches. "People are very quick to pounce on inadequacies and claim a woman can't hack it, and then there is the fixation on personal appearance. So it's not surprising that there is a higher rate of casualties, but it's not the end of the 1997 dream; it's just a setback."
Well, I find it deeply depressing that after 12 years of women making significant advances, we have reached this point of setback. Blair had eight women in his last cabinet, Brown will be lucky to manage a quarter of that by the time he has finished his reshuffle.
Labour is going down and frankly Labour deserves to go down. I say that as a still loyal member of the Party. I find it a bitter pill to swallow that the type of people who we need in politics and in the Labour Party are the same ones being forced out by a self-serving and self-replicating system. If there ever was a case for a sea change in British politics, this is it.