Has anybody seen our Minister?
- 10 May 05, 12:00 AM
In these busy days of post-election reshuffles, the big names and the senior posts tend to dominate the news headlines (yes, Blunkett's back!), which means it's all too easy to lose track of who's moved where lower down the government ranks. So Crippled Monkey thinks we have a new Minister for Disabled People, but I'm still not entirely sure.
Word is spreading - not least on Ouch's messageboard - that the lucky winner of this post is Liz Blackman MP. Now, I've consulted my usual sources and dug up this brief BBC News profile, which reveals that Liz is the member for Erewash in the East Midlands. This means, fact fans, that she was the winning MP in the constituency where Robert Kilroy-Silk's ambitions for his Veritas party came to a sticky end.
But apart from that, what else do we know about Ms Blackman? Well, she's the chair of APPGA - the All Party Parliamentary Group on Autism - as well as serving as a member on the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Disability, Fibromyalgia and Learning Disability, Not sure yet as to what her direct knowledge or experience of disability might be. We'll wait and see, I guess.
Of course, having said all that, there still doesn't seem to be any direct statement that Liz Blackman really is the new Minister for Disabled People. The Department for Work and Pensions' press release so far lists her as one of two "Parliamentary Under Secretaries (Commons)". But since it's been confirmed that the previous disability minister, Maria Eagle, has moved to the Department for Education and Skills, I'm presuming that someone must have taken over the job. Oh, aren't the goings-on at Westminster just so confusing?!
This is Crippled Monkey reporting from outside Parliament, for BBC Ouch. More news as I discover it. Maybe.
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