Shunted

One casualty of the Gordon Brown's reshuffle is my old friend, Tom Harris, now the ex-minister for the railways. By many accounts, he was doing a great job and I think was very enthusiastic for his remit. So why was he shunted? Perhaps it was this 'miserable' story in June that did for him? Or is it a cull of Scots in the UK government? Or maybe it's just that his pretty open blogging just doesn't sit well with a government that is looking increasingly shaky. Such openness threatens institutions that like to control what is put in the public domain. Politicians, like church leaders, need to get with it and understand that things have changed: the worldwide interweb has given lots of people a voice they never had before. I suspect a lot of people appreciated the fact that a minister, albeit a junior one, regularly updated his blog on matters political and personal.

Tom will return to the back benches and continue to represent the people of Glasgow South. Who knows, he might well find himself in a position of influence when the current lot find themselves either out of a job completely or joining him on those benches come the next election?

In the meantime, keep up the good work, Irwin C. Gull (2!).

Comments

[rybam]

Checked out Tom Harris' blog - hadn't seen it before - and liked it. You will note that (in the Matt Damon/Sarah Palin post) he makes the point that most UK Christians are not creationists. This is entirely true and commonsensical. Would that you'd mention it sometime!