Is motley a strong enough word to describe this lot?

So Labour MPs have voted for the members of the shadow cabinet and Ed Miliband has placed these people in the positions that best suit their talents. There being no Ministry of Bullying, Ed Balls has been made Shadow Home Secretary. There being no Ministry of Feminist claptrap, Harriet Harman becomes Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. You get the idea...

What is also noticeable is that Ed Miliband has already had to go outside of the elected cabinet to find someone Welsh to make Secretary of State for Wales and he's plumped for a member of his 'new generation' - Peter Hain. Likewise for Secretary of State for Northern Irealand he's had to bring in the Labour MP who has his own butler - Shaun Woodward.

The surprise is that the new Chancellor of the Exchequer is Alan Johnson. So whereas Alistair Darling had to work whilst knowing that Ed Balls wanted his job, Alan Johnson will have to work knowing that both Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper are waiting in the wings.

The most worrying appointment though is that of Sadiq Khan, Ed Miliband's campaign manager in the leadership election, who is rewarded with the post of shadow Lord Chancellor and justice secretary. This is a man who has represented Supt Ali Dizaei and Louis Farakhan, as well as Babar Ahmad. Sadiq Khan is aan who has had at least two run-ins with the House of Commons over his use of expenses for electioneering rather than official parliamentary business. Well I suppose he has experience of legal matters.


Here's the complete list, as per the BBC:

Leader of the Opposition: Ed Miliband

Deputy Leader and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development: Harriet Harman

Shadow Chancellor: Alan Johnson

Shadow Foreign Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities: Yvette Cooper

Shadow Home Secretary: Ed Balls

Chief Whip: Rosie Winterton

Shadow Education Secretary: Andy Burnham

Shadow Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary (with responsibility for political and constitutional reform): Sadiq Khan

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary: Douglas Alexander

Shadow Business Secretary: John Denham

Shadow Health Secretary: John Healey

Shadow Secretary Communities and Local Government Secretary: Caroline Flint

Shadow Defence Secretary: Jim Murphy

Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary: Meg Hillier

Shadow Commons Leader: Hilary Benn

Shadow Transport Secretary: Maria Eagle

Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary: Mary Creagh

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Angela Eagle

Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary: Shaun Woodward

Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland: Ann McKechin

Shadow Welsh Secretary: Peter Hain

Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary: Ivan Lewis

Shadow Lords Leader: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Shadow Olympics Minister: Tessa Jowell

Shadow Cabinet Office Minister: Liam Byrne

Lords Chief Whip: Lord Bassam of Brighton

Shadow Attorney-General: Baroness Scotland

Do note that of the 19 elected by the Labour party members, all served in Gordon Brown's last lamentable Labour Government. 14 of them were MPs at the time of the Iraq war vote, 12 voting to support the military action. I believe all 19 voted for the introduction of ID cards.

Ed Miliband promised a new generation of leadership and a break with the last Labour government so I wonder how he and the BBC will spin that as well as the above, present in his shadow cabinet are as well as himself who wrote the 2010 manifesto, Douglas Alexander who was the labour party's election co-ordinator.

Also note that as Toby Young writes:

'Of the 19 people elected, eight went to fee-paying schools and two went to grammars. Of the other three people in the Shadow Cabinet, two were educated privately and one at a grammar. In other words, a majority did not go to comprehensives. If you include Ed Miliband, six members of Labour's front bench team did PPE at Oxford and nine went to either Oxford or Cambridge. So much for social diversity.'