One week on ...

"In 2014 David Cameron, the prime minster, made his final cabinet reshuffle before the May 2015 general election and appointed several women to senior posts to fulfil his promise that a third of the top jobs would be occupied by women at the end of the parliament. This proportion has been met and sustained following the Tories' victory at the general election in May. Women are still unrepresented in Mr Cameron's cabinet relative to society as a whole (not that much of a fuss has been raised).

Thanks to Mr Corbyn's late additions, his cabinet is more representative of the country than Mr Cameron's. But one might question the need for a secretary of state for voter registration in the front-bench team, or whether a separate chief whip for the House of Lords is required."

Cameron waited until 2014 to bring the proportion of women in his cabinet up to 30%. Corbyn's cabinet is more representative of the country than Mr. Cameron's. That was from the Economist, not known to support Corbyn.

Could it not be the case that one party would feel they need someone in the cabinet to cover an area of priority to them and another party may have other priorities? Whatever comments someone outside makes they were not there.

I remember where I heard that! Broadcasting House on Sunday morning 40.33.

Helen Lewis (although she is only a journalist.

She was talking about top jobs.

The article says this:

"After being criticised for not involving enough women in his shadow cabinet, Jeremy Corbyn has brought more women in by creating cabinet roles. He has promoted ??young people and voter registration?? to a Cabinet role and given the job to Gloria de Piero, who will be terrific at it given her interest in non-voters and political apathy, but who may be surprised by the whooshing promotion that the role has received. Similarly, Luciana Berger is Shadow Minister for Mental Health, which is now a Cabinet position too. Perhaps it??s a good thing that mental health, so overlooked and underfunded, is a Cabinet role ?? though it??s not arepa rate department to health.

But the fact remains that Corbyn has not promoted women to the great offices of state. On gender equality, he is being beaten by David ??calm down, dear?? Cameron (who people always seem to forget has presided over a massive increase in the number of female Tory MPs), as the Tory Home Secretary is a woman, while all Labour??s top jobs are held by men."

Apart from that, I can't remember what it was to do with. And I'm not reading the thread again.

www.economist.com/news/britain/21664729-labour-partys-new-shadow-cabinet-under-media-and-party-scrutiny-conforming-cabinets

The diagram compares the make up of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet.

The Economist is not pro Labour either.

I read it, jingl.
I still do not see what you mean. It's in the Spectator, which is not known for being nice about socialism. What are you saying he is making up?

Australia has just elected a new prime minister. I wonder how many column inches have been given up to criticising his choice of cabinet. I think he is being given a whole week to sort it out, not just one day.

dj read the -- sodding-- article.

Grace sgran took loads of time consuming research to find that article in The Spectator. you just be grateful Missis. Wouldn't do it for just anybody.

It would be interesting to take a vote in the country re Blair and war crimes Jen. Not that we could do that, of course, if it were ever to be done it needs every legal i dotted and legal t crossed.

Making what up, jingl?

Working on the knowledge that almost all articles are against Corbyn and will come out with anything to make what they are saying sound right I would have to know how past cabinets and shadow cabinets have been put together Jbf.

Without that information - and I believe other governments or oppositions have done it differently depending on what they see as the most important areas to them rather than the ones currently seen as most important - it would be difficult to say anything other than he has set his shadow cabinet up to suit his style of leadership and the LP. I am happy to be persuaded that each and every cabinet/shadow cabinet has been exactly the same since the year dot though.

I suppose (to save you doing all that research to convince me) as he has said he will change his parties approach to politics, I would not find it that unreasonable that he has changed his approach to the needs of people to cover specific areas in his shadow cabinet.

Did a search on the Jonathan Cook website, Gracesgran, for Blair. Corbyn is not the only one who wants him to be tried as a war criminal.

gracesgran, read the article I linked to. He's making it up as he goes along.

An article by an American who knows him.

stopwar.org.uk/news/voice-from-america-should-we-yanks-be-afraid-of-labour-leader-jeremy-corbyn

It's illuminating to read the differences in the two countries as far as the peace process is concerned.

Me too !!

Jen very interesting but sad article as is the one it is commenting on. I have heard that the LP will use social media as much as possible; this makes it even more necessary.

If JBC has been elected by members of the Labour Party on his past performance, principles and aims, if he now has to water them down will they lose faith in him?

Jbf I wonder what do you mean "not just the ones they have now decided are part of the "cabinet"." How does it differ from all the cabinets and shadow cabinets over the years?

interesting

I've read articles from several different publications, left-wing, right-wing, middle of the road, but none of the silly rags that call themselves newspapers. All of them have made reasonable points about Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party after a long career as a back bencher. I don't find either political 'wing' more prejudiced than the other. I do find a good deal of overlap in the middle ground, as one would expect on subjects for which there is no easy answer.

Theyt meant real top jobs, not just the ones they have now decided are part of the "cabinet".

This is very interesting, Gracesgran.
It explains why Corbyn will not get a fair press.

www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2015-09-20/guardians-terrible-dilemma-over-corbyn/

I can speak only for myself, but my own political orientation has never been disclosed on here. No need for it to be. Our ancestors fought hard for a secret ballot and for the right to independent thought without slavish obedience to party dogma. We need to fight extremism (and co-ercion by force or by moralistic pressure) wherever we find it.

Does he belong to one of those religious groups that allow seventeen wives?

The news breaks here, even the DM hasn't caught on to that yet!

There don't appear (to me at any rate, but who am I to judge ) that many extreme rightwingers on here.
People a bit to the right (and left) of centre, a few LibDem-sounding posters, a few floating voters.

Many seem to be posters who like to question rhetoric and dogma, and have also retained that quirky British sense of humour that brought us TW3, Spitting Image, HIGNFY etc.

Wow! Does he have seventeen women in his shadow cabinet? Respect!