The Shadow Cabinet turnover

I prepared this post for the next Shadow Cabinet resignation as they've come so frequently, but with a new general election now looming it's best to post these statistics now.

Since the last general election there have been:

• 5 Shadow Business Secretaries
• 5 Shadow Culture, Media and Sports Secretaries
• 5 Shadow Defence Secretaries
• 5 Shadow Welsh Secretaries
• 4 Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretaries with a fifth to come
• 4 Shadow Attorney Generals plus a vacant period
• 4 Shadow Chief Secretaries to the Treasury
• 4 Shadow Education Secretaries
• 4 Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretaries
• 4 Shadow Health Secretaries
• 4 Shadow Leaders of the House of Commons
• 4 Shadow Ministers for Women and Equalities
• 3 Shadow Home Secretaries
• 3 Shadow International Development Secretaries
• 3 Shadow Ministers for the Cabinet Office
• 3 Shadow Ministers without Portfolio
• 3 Shadow Northern Ireland Secretaries
• 3 Shadow Transport Secretaries
• 3 Shadow Work and Pensions Secretaries
• 2 Shadow Chancellors
• 2 Shadow Foreign Secretaries
• 2 Shadow Housing Secretaries, plus a period of being vacant before the previous holder returned
• 2 Shadow Justice Secretaries
• 2 Shadow Scottish Secretaries
• 2 Chief Whips in the Commons
• 1 Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
• 1 Chief Whip in the Lords

Posts created since the start of the current Parliament:

• 2 Shadow Brexit Secretaries
• 2 Shadow Ministers for Mental Health and vacant for a period in the middle
• 2 Shadow Ministers for Voter Engagement and Youth Affairs
• 1 Shadow International Trade Secretary
• 1 Shadow Lord President of the Council

Posts abolished mid Parliament:

• 3 Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretaries

Posts created and (apparently) abolished mid Parliament:

• 1 Shadow Minister for Diverse Communities

Posted without comment.

The return of Ken Clarke

I've just seen BBC News: Clarke in Tory front bench return. After several weeks worth of speculation it's not that big a surprise and it's by all means a good move.

Ken Clarke is still one of the biggest beasts and most experienced MPs in the party and his energy, experience and talents will be well deployed against Peter Mandelson. Often some of the best appointments are the controversial ones and this is no exception. It's time to put past issues aside, as the new front bench have, and focus on the real issue of getting rid of Labour so as to make this country great again.

Whose Shadow Chancellor?

And another thing...: Vince Cable is no-one’s Shadow Chancellor highlights the way that in recent years the Liberal Democrats have pretended to have a "Shadow Cabinet" and individual posts such as "Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer". As Tom Harris rightly points out there is no such thing as the "Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet" just as there is no such thing as the "Conservative Shadow Cabinet". It is the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet, just as David Cameron is the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition, which encompasses all the opposition parties.

I particularly like this comment:

Vince Cable is the Liberals’ Treasury or economic spokesman, but he’s certainly not anyone’s Shadow Chancellor. If he were, then that makes Bob Spink UKIP’s Shadow Chancellor, Shadow Transport Secretary and Leader of the UKIP Opposition. Which would be just as (but no more) silly.

There may have been many Anti-Popes throughout history but that didn't make any of them a Pope. Just as the Anti-Shadow Cabinet is not a Shadow Cabinet.