Margaret Beckett
Jack Straw is a lying bastard. However, for some time he has at least been offering reassurance to those concerned about the possibility of us plunging into another doomed war in the middle east:
“I don’t see any circumstances in which military action would be justified against Iran, full stop.” — Straw, November 2004
He repeatedly said that that a military attack on Iran would be “inconceivable”, something which Blair will not endorse with quite the same emphasis. So what will Margaret Beckett’s position be on Iran? It seems unlikely that the new foreign secretary will be quite as categorical as Straw. David Frum, the neo-con and former Bush speechwriter credited as the originator of the term “axis of evil”, gloats:
Straw was a prominent figure in the Labour party; Beckett owes her rise entirely to Tony Blair. The prime minister is replacing a foreign secretary whose weak words impeded successfully coercive negotiations with Iran with one much more beholden to him.
Incidentally, Frum is even more delighted about the demise of Clarke who, apparently, “tried to keep social peace with an alarming series of concessions to sharia and British Islamism”.
Of course, if Blair goes soon, there will be another shuffle of the ministerial deck by the new leader. It would be rather nice, wouldn’t it, if Brown’s cabinet were to wipe the smile from Frum’s face.