Theresa who?

Posted on May 29, 2008 by bobpiper

portrait-theresavilliers-2007.jpg OK, It’s quiz time. Who is Theresa Villers? Well, perhaps that’s too difficult, so I’ll tell you that she is a Tory MP. More than that, I’ll give you a bigger clue, she’s in the Shadow Cabinet. The real question is… what job does she do? It’s an area that has been in the news quite a bit over the last month… come on, be honest with yourself now, do you really know?
Well, apparently Villers is the Conservative Shadow Minister for…… Transport! Given all the stuff with tanker drivers, fuel price increases, road tax rises, you might be forgiven for thinking this woman would have a bit of a profile… but, none of it! Even over here at ConservativeHome they have noticed she has been conspicuous by her absence.
AndrewM.jpgInterestingly, the other Shadow Minister who seems to have gone AWOL is Andrew Mitchell. No quiz this time, I’ll cut to the quick and tell you. He is the Shadow Minister for International Development. Again, given the disasters in China and Burma, Mitchell is someone you may have thought would be popping up to give his take on these issues, particularly as he is familiar with the area, having paid a visit to meet with the Burmese Junta only last year.
Could it be that the Conservatives are so bereft of policies that they get their chief spokespersons to do a runner when any issue that affects their portfolio hits the news?

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5 Responses to Theresa who?

  1. Andrew Spencer says:
    May 29, 2008 at 11:30 am

    As ConHome points out, most Tories would agree that both Villiers and Mitchell are not pulling their weight but the same could be said about the cabinet.
    Let us just take those two examples. Where has Ruth Kelly been in recent days and weeks? She has hardly been taking the lead. Instead, Mr Brown has once again abandoned his holiday to return to work and ‘solve’ the fuel crisis. Similarly Douglas Alexander seems to have virtually disappeared off the face of the earth since the disaster of the non-election last autumn. He has hardly been setting the airwaves alight following the Burma typhoon and the Chinese earthquake has he? Again, it has been the PM in the lead on these issues.
    While there are undoubtedly weak links in the Conservative Shadow Cabinet, the low profile of many Labour cabinet ministers is symptomatic of the failure of the Brown government to keep the ‘big beasts’ on board and of exhausation of talent after a decade and more in power.

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  2. chaz says:
    May 29, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    Bob. Allegedly, they are playing the ‘stand back, shut up and watch Labour self destruct’ game, assisted by the media who choose not to scrutinise them.
    So it’s most likely that as their opinions aren’t being sought and dissected they are on their hols. Check out the journalist’s and opposition bench suntans when they get back to work.
    Btw, the article by Freedland has unsurprisingly collapsed into a typical CiF squabble. Nothing to learn from there, but credit to him for trying.

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  4. Bob Piper says:
    May 29, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    Fred… I said she was anonymous, didn’t I?
    Andrew, you may well be right about the Ministers, but frankly, the less we see of them at the minute the better, although I suspect if you ‘google’ Douglas Alexander and Andrew Mitchell in the News pages you will find lexander is much more prominent – understandably so for a Minister, I guess.
    The fact is though that the job of the opposition is to oppose, and piss-poor as Gideon Osborne is, he at least does that. These two characters seem to have left the planet during a crisis. What was that about Macavity?

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  5. Andrew Spencer says:
    May 29, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    Bob, you are right that brown seems to have ditched the Macavity act. It seems a little unfair on him that he used to be criticised for playing duck and cover when things got tough and now he criticised for being around too much, but I guess that’s just politics! Why do you think Brown is so prominent at the moment rather that letting his cabinet take some of the heat off him? Are they unwilling to be loyal to him after he showed such little loyalty to Blair or does he simply not trust them?
    As you say, the purpose of an Opposition is to oppose and Mitchell, Villiers to name just two aren’t cutting the mustard. To your list I would add Jeremy Hunt, Caroline Spelman and Peter Ainsworth. The Shadow Cabinet has generally performed much better in the last six months than in the previous six months but more work still needs to be done and some of the deadwood needs to be excised.
    More worrying from Labour and the country’s point of view, however, is the amount of those out of their depth in the cabinet.

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