Labour shadow cabinet

BLEURGH Jim Murphy at Defence, remember him as NUS president.

According to the Guardian the appointment of Alan Johnson is a 'signal that he intends to assert his own authority on Labour's economic policy, reducing the risk of the splits that marred the Brown-Blair era.' Its also to placate David Miliband's supporters as AJ was the first to declare support for David.

Chil - that's certainly the most credible reasoning so far . Very odd otherwise.

I think now we know why Ed won the contest... he's got a really nasty streak. Putting Balls, Cooper and Johnson in roles that they are patently unsuited for means he can groom his newbies to do things Ed's Way, sack the Iraq-war-financial-mess-guilty old guard when they fall on their faces... and then go at the new election with 'The Nothing Like New Labour Labour'. :)

At some point Labour will need to explain how they will reduce the 'structural deficit' - the bit the Coalition say won't go away with economic growth. Maybe they disagree about it's existence but we need Labour to explain why.

Smee - I know they signed up to the manifesto but since they lost, they've seriously back tracked.

During the leadership hustings, there was no acceptance of overspending. Complete opposition of the governemt's cuts. And no alternative suggestions made.

Surely Harriet Harmon will be shadowing NC?

LItchick, well the election manifesto idea was to halve the deficit in four years and they all signed up to that, though Ed Balls during leadership campaign reckoned that might be too fast. Don't know the nitty gritty, but they'll have to come clean once the coalition announce the plans in two weeks.

RainbowRainbow I hope that wasn't the case with Yvette.

She may still have women's role though so not total waste.

Who will be shadowing Nick Clegg?

Smee - well tell me what cuts they do support, cos I'll be buggared if can get a straight answer.

I'm not thrilled about AJ as shadow chancellor either. I wonder whether Cooper was offered it and turned it down? I hope not, as that sounds out a terrible message about women's roles vis-a-vis hubby's. It's odd that she got shadow foreign sec, which is a total non-job.

And Balls will make mincemeat of May, but as mrsdennisleary said, May is rubbish enough not to waste Balls on her. I'm quite liking Burnham at Education though. He will make Gove seem even more ranty and odd.

I dont think Alan Johnson is right for Shadow Chancellor, I was thinking either Home Sec or Foreign. He is good at opposition for oppositions sake though.

One of the reasons I dodnt vote for Andy Burnham in the leadership election was that I thought he was too focused on Education and Health, so I think he will do well in his new role.

Top 3 posts bit weird. Would prefer Yvette to be flying flag for families. Alan Johnston great speaker but not sure if this is good post for him. Teresa May demonstrably useless so waste of Ed Balls to shadow her. Andy B good for education and John Healey is a star and deserves Health.

Who has the shadow women's brief?

Litchick, yes they all adhere to Keynes, but they won't oppose every cut as they know the deficit has to be cut. What they'll object to is the non sensical brutality of the coalition's cuts. They'd argue there's no point in removing the deficit if you destroy the nation to do so.

Alan Johnson shadow chancellow, not sure I'm thrilled about this

jackstar - I think Ed M, Ed B and Yvette are strict adherents to Keynes and would say that when times are tough the state must continue to invest and not cut.

They will swot away warnings about credit ratings as hysterical.

I suspect they will oppose every single cut.

I and many other Labour supporters completely disagree with this position...but it is going to be the party's position.

This will allow them to oppose the cuts and make further additional spending plans.

killed it
I'll go kill the jeremy hunt one

Not a labour supporter in anyway...but as a feminist, feel thst it's very good day for British politics.

Hurray for Yvette. jack that's my worry. I hope Ed doesn't bully/sulk her into shying away from the job. Ideological differences notwithstanding, she seems like a fantastic person to take a leadership role. I also think she could be the next leader. Who'd have thunk it

I hope YC gets to shadow Osborne.

I agree that Ed Balls would be wasted shadowing Teresa May, but he needs to move away from schools. I hope there is a high profile job for Alan Johnson.

Litchick - do you expect to see Labour come up with a clear economic strategy? Isn't more likely they'll just take an 'opposition' role and hope they'll get back in a wave of coalition unpopularity?

On Womans Hour today they were discussing Yvette - saying she might not want to block hubby's political ambitions .

Ed Balls is the best thing that Labour has got. I think they need someone like him to challenge the Tories' cuts (even though he would have made similar cuts himself). He would do an effective job playing devil's advocate.

I think Ed Balls or Yvette will get shadow chancellor as both oppose the cuts proposed by Gordon Brown during the election.

Though I disagree with them, I do think the Labour party needs a cohesive strategy in how to position itself.

I think Ed M as leader, Yvette as shadow chancellor, and Ed Balls as shadow home sec would send out an unequivacal message that the Labour party wishes to oppose all cuts and feels the country should continue to borrow.

As I say, I don't agree with them, but I think it's a fair stance to take. And one that needs to be publicly acknowledged.

Yvette for Chancellor. I wouldnt want to see Ed Balls as Shadow Home Sec. Theresa May is useless enough not to require Lab to waste EB shadowing her.

Nice to see that lot of horrible Blairites cleared out such as Pat McFadden. This is fair reward for the shockingly whingeing speech he made on Sunday at conference. He did this as NPF Chair and should not have used that platform to whine about DM losing.

Do you think Caroline Flint has a photo session planned to mark her return to frontline politics?