What Is It About Paddy Ashdown?

Brown wanted him in the Cabinet. Now Cameron wants him the Cabinet. What is so special about him?

Well, he put the disastrously deluded New Labour-New Tory view on Yugoslavia when the main parties were still led by figures not only more serious than Blair or his Heir (that is not saying anything), but actually serious in themselves. And yes, at least where foreign policy is concerned, I certainly do include John Major in that.

Brown may initially have offered Ashdown Northern Ireland, but there is no doubt that, had he accepted, then he would have been Foreign Secretary by now. Cameron also wants him at the Foreign Office, a job with a particularly extensive and quite recent history of being done from the Lords. After whom, it would be Gove. Don't let this process begin.