Simpson: Mandelson a 'political throwback'

Friday, 03, Oct 2008 12:00

Alan Simpson, Labour MP for Nottingham South, comments on today's reshuffle:

"The appointment of Ed Miliband as the new climate change and energy secretary has to be the bright part of the Cabinet reshuffle. This brings together the two essential elements that had previously been disconnected in government policy. It also does so under the leadership of someone with a bright open mind who is able to grab policy contradictions by the scruff of the neck and shake some sense into them.

"The other end of the spectrum is the appointment of Peter Mandelson to head up BERR [Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform]. This is not just a political throwback, but a presumption that the old agenda of globalised deregulation still makes sense in a world rocked by the crises it has brought about. Internationally, the developing world will probably breathe a sigh of relief that he is no longer the EU Commissioner forcing them to accept free trade agreements that would loot their economies. But the transfer of this thinking from a European level to a domestic one has to be of questionable gain. The best that can probably be said is that Europe's loss is also our loss.

"The 'unlikely' in the reshuffle surrounds the appointment of John Hutton as defence secretary. There are big challenges in UK defence policies. Will Britain find the courage to acknowledge that the military strategy in Afghanistan is now part of the problem rather than the solution? Can we face the reality that the UN mandate for occupying Iraq ends this year and that Britain's troops have to be withdrawn? Can we revisit decisions about a new generation of nuclear missiles in order to lead a genuine debate with other countries about a non-nuclear future? John Hutton's background on all these issues makes the answer 'unlikely.' Britain will be left with these issues as huge contradictions in the policy debates that will dominate international security issues in the years ahead."