Emperor Blair is gathering a merry band of ne'er-do-wells around him with his not-quite new cabinet reshuffle.
Causing the most controversy is a new educational post and peerage for Andrew Adonis. Here's what the Lib Dems have to say about him:
"This is a man who has had no dialogue at all with the teaching profession, with parents, with other organisations, but has wielded unprecedented power, taking ideas direct from the US and implanting them in the British education system... If we are actually saying that, with a majority that is still well over 60, Tony Blair can't find one of his elected MPs as an education minister, then, my goodness, the government is in a sorry state"
Yep - who needs to be an MP at all as long as you have Tony's number on speed-dial.
Also along for one last ride with the PM is Beverley Hughes who you'll remember quit a while back after finally owning up to being a dishonest lying cow... oh hang on that's not quite right... she only unwittingly misled people over her knowledge of lax visa checks... And we believe she's the best woman for the post of Children's Minister after her firm stance against Chris Morris' Brass Eye which she declared was "unspeakably sick". True, she never actually bothered to watch it, but kids are terrible liars anyway so we're sure they'll all get along.
Rising like Vader from a molten pit is David Blunkett who returned as work and pensions secretary. That'll be ID cards all round for anyone signing on then. It'll be interesting to see if he's as hard (and by that we mean callous) in the new job as he was on refugees from Afghanistan and Kosovo who he told to "get back home" and start rebuilding their countries. Nice.
Mr Blair responded to fresh criticism pretty much as he's done in the past saying "I'd much rather see you on my side, than scattered into atoms!" Or was that Ming? We get confused...
