Gordon Brown's reshuffle

Most of the media have been preoccupied with the return to Cabinet of Peter Mandelson in Gordon Brown's reshuffle. Bearing in mind that Mandy is a hate figure to many it's hardly surprising that his rehabilitation is the big story. This has meant that some of the other movements in, out and around government aren't getting all the attention they deserve. Here in no particular order are some of my thoughts about the changes (excluding Mandelson):

• The break up of Defra leaving a smaller department to concentrate on food and farming is very welcome. Defra was too big and unwieldy for one person to head up even when Labour's main geek David Miliband was in charge. And it was a fact that when Margaret Beckett was the Defra person she was so preoccupied with climate change that farming was pretty well off her radar. She also treated farmers with contempt and when it came to the party conferences they were lucky to get a mention. More about Beckett later.
• A new department combining energy and climate change headed up by Ed Miliband. Again a sound move with these two subjects being a good fit. But will we see any abandonment of wind farms with the frequent changes of wind speeds and hence power output and instead the development of tide and wave energy? Don't hold your breath on this one.
• The separation of Defence and the Scottish Office. The earlier combination of these two under one minister displayed an appalling lack of judgment by Gordon Brown. OK with devolution the Scottish Office job might not have been a big one but the perception that Defence (we are currently still involved in two wars remember apart from maintaining a garrison in The Falklands) only demanded a part time minister demonstrated just how bad Brown is as PM. His namesake (Des) Browne was poor at the time of the Iranian Hostages affair - he admitted that the buck stayed with him but Blair didn't sack him and he continued in post in Brown's first cabinet. We are told that Des didn't want any other job in the reshuffle; like Ruth Kelly he is a committed Roman Catholic and when the Fertilisation and Embryology Bill comes back they will be clear to vote via their consciences. Solid performer John Hutton moves to Defence, a big improvement then in this key position.
• Geoff Hoon has moved to Transport, Ruth Kelly's old job. This former barrister has been one of those amazing survivors of the Blair and Brown eras: his temporary amnesia at the time of the Hutton Enquiry when his most frequent reply to his Lordship was "I don't remember that" doesn't seem to have hindered his continuance at the top table! I heard the other day that Hoon's father and grandfather had railway jobs and it will be fascinating to see if he displays any leaning towards our train services as against other forms of transport.
• Caravan fanatic Margaret Beckett is back. Not good. She takes over Housing from Caroline Flint. Beckett to my mind has typified the worst of New Labour although she had her roots in Old Labour of course. Here is a woman who has managed to cost this country literally millions of pounds in fines to the EU with the ridiculously complicated model of the Rural Payments Agency set up in England for which she bears responsibility. Her punishment? She was promoted to Foreign Secretary, what an insult to farmers. Regarded as a good stonewaller she will no doubt be the one to once again be wheeled out to speak to the media when something nasty happens. Make sure your alarm is working Margaret: the Today programme on Radio 4 starts early. Gordon of course prefers Andrew Marr to interview him on Marr's Sunday show - it's generally recognised that Andy only bowls gentle full tosses when the Prime Minister is in the Studio.

I don't know if the ministerial futures of the always impressive Dorset MP Jim Knight or the far less able Ben Bradshaw from Exeter have been sorted yet but no doubt we will know shortly.

One person who will be especially pleased about the return of Peter Mandelson will be satirist and impersonator Rory Bremner. Rory seems to take particular pleasure taking the mickey out of Mandelson and now he's back from Brussels we can expect to see and hear more of Mandy again when the Bremner show resumes.

Possible new cases of Foot and Mouth

I hear that there are another two cases of suspected foot and mouth, one in Surrey and the other in Kent's Romney Marsh. I suspect that after tests have been completed that these will return negative results. Of course this is one of the problems with F & M: animals can be showing some similar symptoms but have some other illness. Now add in the lengthy incubation period and the fact that sheep especially are difficult to diagnose. It is quite a nightmare to deal with.

In relation to movement restrictions what particularly bugs me is the fact that Scotland and Wales (presumably because of devolution) have decided to relax the rules whereas English farmers are much more in a straitjacket. So a farmer say in Northumberland is disadvantaged compared with a neighbour just over the border in Bonnie Scotland. I have blogged before about the Rural Payments Agency and the resulting difficulties for English farmers when the hapless Margaret Beckett instigated the most complex system imaginable. What a mess this whole devolution business has proved to be, and this is largely due to this government's incompetence and lack of foresight.

On a positive note this evening's news showed Hilary Benn at the F & M control centre at Guildford. He's one of the better ministers I feel; certainly he's had a baptism of fire (or should that be water) what with this summer's flooding and now the F & M crisis.

Fingers crossed that the results from the two latest suspect cases will be negative.

Committee attacks ministry over hostage crisis

This weekend saw the release of a report by Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) over the handling of the hostage crisis in which 15 sailors and marines were captured and subsequently released by the Iranians.

There has already been an enquiry about the whole incident, one result of which was to absolve anyone from blame, particularly as to who gave our service people permission to sell their stories to the media. The FAC found that situation totally unsatisfactory and want the "guilty" named. I couldn't agree more with them. It is totally and utterly wrong for individuals who are so ready to accept praise when things go right not to accept personal responsibility for crass decisions. What bugs me is that Defence Secretary Des Browne on the one hand says that the buck stops with him regarding the hostage debacle but then has to be repeatably asked to say "sorry" in the Commons and is left in post! Similarly Margaret Beckett has cost the country literally hundreds of thousands of pounds with her appalling handling of rural payments to farmers. She then got promoted to Foreign Secretary by Tony Blair whereas she should have been sacked. But this is characteristic of this government I'm afraid.

DEFRA incompetence leads to massive fine

I suppose that the main political stories in our country last week were the question of what to do to tackle inner city gun crime and the announcement re bringing some of our troops back from Iraq. Of course other things happen and one of these was the announcement by written statement that we could be fined up to £305 million by the EU for the failure of the Rural Payments Agency (effectively part of DEFRA) to have paid out 96% of farm payments by June 2006. If you blinked at the wrong moment you could have missed this piece of news and I daresay that the national media paid scant attention to it.

To recap the EU decided to change the way farm subsidies were paid from one based on production to one related to environmental benefits. This massive change to the financial disbursements of the Common Agricultural Policy seems to have won majority approval from those affected but the problem was how to effect a transition between the two systems. Countries were given options on how to do this: Wales and Scotland opted for uncomplicated systems with the result that farmers didn't have to wait very long for their payments. However England decided to use a massively complicated hybrid system and also encouraged people with very small holdings who had never had production payments before to pitch in. Bear in mind our terrible record in introducing new IT systems and the result was the RPA was overwhelmed. And who was the incompetent who insisted on this way forward? Former DEFRA Secretary Margaret Beckett.

Margaret Beckett really is the most appalling person. She treated farmers and farming with absolute disdain; examples of this - she never liked to talk about farming in her speeches at Labour Party Conferences, she famously refused to be seen to be eating British beef when we were desperately trying to get back into world markets and then on another occasion when she visited Exeter (the Met Office I think) she allowed some of our farmers to stand up and make representations to her. My informant tells me that part way through someones speech she opened her handbag and started to file her nails! This is the sort of disrespect she shows. This awful awful woman has not only failed to say sorry for the RPA debacle but has been promoted to Foreign Secretary into the bargain!

Going back to the main story I do understand that the fine could reach £305 million, it could be less. Let's hope the latter. One of my biggest complaints about this government is the fact they are trying to change too much - they would have done better to have halved the number of things they have tried to alter and to have done these things really well instead of displaying the massive incompetency which has been their hallmark.