UK's cabinet looks good, but must prove itself

Columnist Polly Toynbee sees promise in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's cabinet, named on June 28th, but cautions that difficult tasks lie ahead. "Cabinet making is necessarily ruthless. Though Brown avoided public humiliations, nine ministers were knifed to make way for fresh blood. But the balance is good between young and experienced, Blairite and Brownite. ... For all the good mood music, most departments face formidable challenges. One sharp turn in policy direction, and the most urgent, is likely to be under David Miliband as meteoric young foreign secretary, ... [he] can be trusted not to take us to war, not to rattle out war on terror nonsense, nor to strut and posture in Blairite messianic mode. ... As they stepped into No 10 yesterday, here was as decent and clever a team of ministers as ever graced the cabinet table. It's certainly the most genuinely united government in living memory. Now they have to show they can seize the public's imagination too."

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