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Jeneral2885

(1,354 posts)
Tue Jul 15, 2014, 02:08 PM Jul 2014

The new foreign affairs team

Not Just FCO:

FCO: Philip Hammond. Has the background from MOD time. He was a rather good MOD minister, despite the redundancies and equipment cut backs (which recently were brought back, eg Sentinel, Shadow, 24 CDO, CBRN (Royal Tank Regt Squadron). I have no knowledge on his EU hatred/love or whatever. But he has a lot to tackle (Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russian/Ukraine, China etc)...

Defence: Now over to Michael Fallon and A Soubry gets a promotion with Andrew Murrison out. Hae no idea on Fallon whatsoever (his hansard record shows little). But Hammond wasnt a defence person when he took the job. But apparently, Fallon supports the Trident renewal and voted for Iraq.

DFID: Greening stays not so much to feminise the Cabinet but because I think she's doing well there (although A Mitchell build up the department post Labour). No more Alan Ducan. Over to a MOS who is more miltiary minded. That would work fine for the anti-0.7% crowd.

I'm not well versed in the other Foreign Affairs-related departments but will probably follow up.

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