Reid's Clever Departure

You have to hand it to John Reid. He knows when to get out. He has never hung around long enough in any of his ministerial offices to deal with the consequences of his decisions. Now, as the outgoing Home Secretary, he is once again leaving someone else to clear up his mess. Having organised the complete restructuring of his department and its splitting into two, a nightmare task if ever there was one, he can happily watch a successor come a cropper over the details while he picks up his directorships and makes money on the speaking circuit. His departure is being seen as heralding a Blairite exodus, but did anyone really think that Gordon Brown was somehow not going to wield a pretty hefty axe in the direction of his cabinet opponents (i.e. anyone who has not salvishly followed G. Brown)? For all the personnel changes likely to accrue from a change of premiership, we await in anticipation any indication that there will be actual political changes as well.

In France, meanwhile, they have swapped one right-wing president for another, but they look as if they really will experience dynamic political change. He may be a divisive figure in his own country, but as the new French president goes for a rest to determine his future government, he carries with him a lustre of dynamism and change that is missing from his future British counterpart.

Church Thoughts

Looks as if I wasn't far off when I suggested John Reid might hear a few jibes about the government if he came to church this morning. In my own church, prayers about the government's legislative agenda beat ones about the homeless, and for our missionaries abroad, into first place this morning. Meanwhile, the preacher, in an excellent sermon on Luke 12, managed to use the recent troubles at No. 10 to illustrate a point made in verse 2 of that chapter. Luke quotes Jesus saying that, "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known." Clear references to the problems of a cover-up, should that be the intention of the No. 10 spin doctors over cash for honours.

Oh, and I was delighted to discover that Julius Caesar is buried in my church. Honest. I rested my coffee cup on his not unimpressive tomb only this morning.