Boring but Noteworthy

When Gordon Brown readmitted Paul Murphy to the Cabinet as, er, Welsh Secretary, he caused a vacancy in the chairmanship of one of the Commons Select Committees. Quite an important one too - the Intelligence and Security Committee. So which gallant campaigner for greater parliamentary scrutiny of the executive has been appointed? Step forward yet another ex-minister - the ex-Foreign Minister, Margaret Beckett. Beckett had arguably the least distinguished record of any foreign secretary, and certainly has no record as an indepedent minded legislator, so here's yet more evidence of the uselessness of the select committee system whose chairmen are appointed by government whim.