Reid Will Go

Not that I think he would have had much choice as a long-term foe of Gordon Brown, but John Reid has announced that he will leave the ninth government post he has held when Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister. Reid has been the odd job man of Blairite governments, illustrating better than anyone the generalist nature of Cabinet work (unless you're Gordon Brown, of course). He is likely to head a fairly lengthy list of cabinet Ministers who could start to prepare their memoirs on Brown's accession. As well as Reid, Lord Falconer and John Prescott have already said they will go, while Hilary Armstrong, Baroness Amos, John Hutton, Tessa Jowell and Margaret Beckett may all be asked to make way for younger blood. Few of them will be missed.