A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK W HEN a Cabinet is reconstructed no one
can be expected to understand the reason for all the decisions taken. It applies to the Ministers who go out, to the Ministers who come in, and equally to the Ministers who stay put. If one were to mark the changes as the Stock Exchange does, with a plus or minus sign, indicating where there is improvement or the reverse, I should certainly put a plus against Lord Addison (as Lord Privy Seal) and Mr. Woodburn as Secretary for Scotland. Mr. Noel- Baker would get neither, except on grounds of relative youth, for Lord Addison was a very good Commonwealth Minister, and Mr. Noel-Baker will be a very good one too. Mr. Shinwell at the War Office should just get a plus (actually it is the -office in every case that should be awarded the sign, not the Minister). Mr. Gaitskell, who succeeds at the Ministry of Fuel and Power, must for the moment have a query, for he has yet to prove his calibre in a peculiarly responsible and exacting position, but I would give him a vote of confidence. In the changes in the other major offices there seems to be neither much gain nor much loss. I should have thought Mr. Hynd might have been given a longer run at the Ministry of Pensions, and if Mr. Wilmot has been moved from the Ministry of Supply to a back bench because he sees the folly of nationalising iron and steel he deserves sympathy. As to whether the whole collective affair deserves a plus or minus, I should say a smallish plus, largely as the result of calling on "the intellectuals" at the expense of the trade union element.
Previous page
