THE NEW SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Alex Salmond: First Minister (Constitutional affairs)

Nicola Sturgeon: Deputy First Minster
Cabinet Secretary for Health & Wellbeing

Shona Robison: Minster for Commonwealth Games & Sport
Michael Matheson: Minister for Public Health

John Swinney: Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment & Sustainable Growth

Aileen Campbell: Minister for Local Government & Planning
Fergus Ewing: Minister for Energy, Enterprise & Tourism

Kenny MacAskill: Cabinet Secretary for Justice

Rosanna Cunningham: Minister for Community Safety & Legal Affairs

Michael Russell: Cabinet Secretary for Education & Lifelong Learning

Alasdair Allan: Minister for Learning & Skills
Angela Constance: Minister for Children & Young People

Richard Lochhead: Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs & the Environment

Stewart Stevenson: Minister for Environment & Climate Change

Bruce Crawford: Cabinet Secretary for Government Business & Strategy

Brian Adam: Minister for Government Business & Chief Whip

Alex Neil: Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure & Capital Investment

Keith Brown: Minister for Housing & Transport

Fiona Hyslop: Cabinet Secretary for Culture & External Affairs

Law Officers:

Lord Advocate: Frank Mulholland
Solicitor General: Lesley Thomson

ROW OVER DEFENCE CUTS DEEPENS

It would have seemed reasonable to suppose that the first threat to David Cameron’s authority would have been from a Liberal Democrat (and let’s face it the only one with the balls to do that is Vince Cable).

But it appears that that challenge has come from Liam Fox whose letter to Cameron about cuts to the Armed Forces was leaked to and published by the Daily Telegraph yesterday. The public support for Fox from military commanders has angered Cameron, but he has issued a statement saying that he supports the Defence Secretary.

But for all that support Cameron and George Osborne told Fox to find even more cost-cutting measures and rejected Fox’s attempts to shield the Navy from the brunt of the cuts.

Mr Fox's letter warned of "grave consequences” if the defence budget were to be cut by 10%. But the next day the National Security Council met and ordered Fox to make even deeper cuts. It looks like Cameron has decided that the navy and naval equipment is not to be spared, which may be very bad news for shipbuilding on the Clyde.

However it seems that there is, as you would expect, massive support within the senior ranks of the military for what Fox is doing. This may be the first time for a very long time that the senior officers are behind the defence secretary, even if that puts them at loggerheads with the prime minister. Big name after big name, Dannatt, Jackson, Muxworthy, Williams have backed Fox, and of course Labour’s Ainsworth joined in to make a political point, as if he wasn’t a complete dead loss as Defence minister.

Given all the publicity, and indeed criticism of the last government for starving our soldiers of the funds to do the job in Afghanistan, it seems almost unbelievable that the prime minister will not go along with Fox’s demands.

And what a bonus we are throwing the Taliban. Now they know that the US has a timetable for withdrawal and they know that Britain is too broke to stay in the country, they must be rubbing their grubby hands with joy at the thought of getting rid of the enemy and then their corrupt, mentally unstable president, whom you will remember we helped them elect, and going back to exactly where they were in 2001!

Cameron is unmoved by all the pleading and Osborne is incandescent with rage telling ministers not to go over his head to the Prime Minister.

I make no bones about it; Liam Fox is, from everything I have ever read about him, one of the most unappealing men you could hope to meet. He is a bigot and he is a fiddler and he tried to cover who paid his expenses on trips to Sri lanka. But this time i think he is right. No matter what kind of a mess the Labour government left the country in, we are at war. It is utterly vital that the men we have sent fight in this idiotic conflict are given the very best equipment and support possible.

If not David Cameron will find himself in the same position as Gordon Brown, when troops turn their backs on him and refuse to speak to him or shake his hand.

If you and your chancellor, who have never served, insist on 10% cuts Mr Cameron, I think that the country will expect you to remove our troops from the war immediately. Nothing less will do.

Just as an afterthought. The MoD has to make savings of 10%. Cabinet ministers took a pay reduction of 5%. Is it me or is there an us and them situation going on here?

Pics: Liam Fox, Richard Dannatt

A GOVERNMENT OF ALL THE TALENTS?

Well the Cabinet is sorted now with a mix of Libs and Cons, left and right, thin and fat, male and female......!

I’ve listed the most important of them below together with a few comments:

William Hague: Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Was the leader between 1997-2002. It’s suggested he’s in the wrong job as he is so pro-America and anti-Europe. His mind would be better suited to the Treasury.

George Osborne: Treasury. Youngest Chancellor for 124 years. With all that is to come is he up to the battering he will get on the Today programme?

Theresa May: Home Office (Largely English only role). Most famous for being unspectacular at every brief she held and wearing weird shoes, she appears to be the token woman in a top position, but it’s one I doubt she’ll hold for long.

Ken Clarke: Justice/Lord Chancellor. (Largely English role). Can’t wait to see the Hush Puppies walking backwards after delivering the speech to Her Majesty. Ken’s pretty competent at everything he turns his hand to.

Ian Duncan-Smith: Work and Pensions. Big job for IDS with unemployment rising badly and no jobs on the horizon. They have promised to put people back to work, but there is none... worth a separate post soon.

Michael Gove: English Education. Close friend of Cameron. Will have to sell new schools run by parents.

Vince Cable: Business. Uncertainties over brief, and how it clashes with Treasury. Will have to do something about splitting up the big banks and getting some money back off them.

Liam Fox: Defence. No experience in service. Very dubious record on expenses and on his dealings with declaring interest. Not a nice man. Not to be trusted.

Andrew Lansley: English Health . Will have to find billions of efficiency savings which as we know always translate into deaths.

Francis Maude: Cabinet Office Minister. No idea what they do. He can come and polish our cabinets if he likes.

Thomas Galloway Dunlop du Roy de Blicquy Galbraith: Leader of the Lords. Best known for his parties with baths full of pink champagne on ice. Great. Deal is that he’ll be involved in abolishing himself. I hope he’s good at it.

Chris Hulme: English Energy. Westminster School, Oxford and the Sorbonne. Very clever guy who will have to try to keep the Tories Green.

Jeremy Hunt: English Culture. Will have to shave money off London’s Olympics.

Eric Pickles: English Communities. Says he’s at war with town hall fat cats. Good luck to him.

Andrew Mitchell: International Development. Friend of Ashcroft. Will have to rebalance the development budget from rich to poor countries.

Philip Hammond: English Transport. Going to have great cuts to worry about, including Crossrail, so look out for fireworks with the blond haystack.

Danny Alexander: Scotland. Easy job, not much to it, and he only has Spud Murphy to follow. On the other hand he has to try to stay on the right side of Alex Salmond.

Cheryl Gillan: Wales. Will have to commit to full devolution for Wales. Don’t you think the very existence of these two roles show that Scotland and Wales are unequal partners in this union? There isn’t an England Secretary which suggests that the whole thing is about England.....

Owen Paterson: NI. God help him.

Caroline Spellman: English Environment. Anne Widdecombe’s voice without her brains, and she pays her nanny out of parliamentary expenses and ends up as a Cabinet Minister. Why?

Patrick McLouchin: Chief Conservative Whip. Will have to keep the peace in the coalition. Hah!

Baroness Warsi: No portfolio. Token Muslim and female one at that, with a voice like a corncrake.

Overall, some totally uninspiring people, and a few good ones. One thing I was pleased to see is that the main ministers are from the Commons, unlike the last Cabinet.