Brown’s first cabinet wins plaudits

BRITAIN: New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown won plaudits on Friday for his first cabinet since taking over from his predecessor Tony Blair.

His senior ministerial team, which included a loyal and trusted ally succeeding him as finance minister and the youngest foreign secretary for 30 years, was described as bold, and an effective combination of freshness and experience.

Alistair Darling, 53, succeeds Brown as finance minister, while David Miliband, 41, replaces Margaret Beckett as foreign secretary. He is the youngest person to hold the post since David Owen in 1977.

Brown had been hoping to convey to the public that he was leading a fresh government, not an easy task after spending a decade as finance minister with Blair as prime minister.

His efforts won the praise of much of the British press on Friday morning, though the Daily Telegraph, a right-wing paper often critical of the governing Labour Party, described Brown’s cabinet as “radical and bold.”

Meanwhile, The Guardian, a left-wing paper, said in its editorial: “From a mix of old planks and new boards, Gordon Brown managed to nail together a cabinet that lived up to his promise of considered change.”

Miliband, a “Blairite” tipped as a future Labour Party leader, said he was “tremendously honoured and absolutely delighted” to be appointed and pledged to bring leadership and be “patient as well as purposeful.”

Some of the appointments, including Miliband, indicate that Brown will shift emphasis in the run-up to Britain’s next general election, which is due by 2010 at the latest.

Miliband, who vowed to use the foreign ministry “to maximum effect” to build a better Britain and world, last year criticised Blair’s position on Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Brown also brought in Iraq war critic Mark Malloch Brown, the outspoken former deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, as minister for Africa, Asia and the UN while former junior interior minister John Denham returns to the cabinet as a junior minister in the education ministry.

Notable appointments include Jacqui Smith as Britain’s first female interior minister and Baroness Patricia Scotland as the first female, and black, attorney general, the government’s most senior law adviser.

Ed Balls, Brown’s long-standing economics adviser, took up a new role as children, schools and families secretary, while his wife Yvette Cooper continues as housing minister — the first time a husband and wife have been in Cabinet.

London, Friday, AFP