Nightmare On Downing Street (UK)

Tony Blair carried out his biggest and most brutal Cabinet reshuffle yesterday as he attempted to shore up his position after one of the worst ever local election performances in Labour's history.

He signalled his determination to remain in Downing Street by promoting trusted and loyal ministers, sacking Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, and demoting six ministers, including Jack Straw and the disgraced John Prescott.

It was a defiant rebuff for supporters of Gordon Brown who stepped up their demands for Mr Blair to quit after Labour was relegated to third place behind the Tories and the Liberal Democrats and lost control of 18 local authorities.

But there was no sign that it had strengthened Mr Blair's authority, with growing calls last night from senior backbenchers for him to set out a timetable for a handover to the Chancellor.

Left-wing Labour MPs claimed they now had 50 signatories for a letter calling on Mr Blair to set an "early end date" to his premiership. They need 70 to force a leadership challenge.

At breakfast time, as the results were still coming in, Mr Blair embarked on his long-awaited reshuffle, with more than half the ministers in the Cabinet changing places.

It was an attempt to deflect attention from Labour's humiliation as the Tories capped Mr Blair's worst two weeks in power by achieving their best electoral triumph in a generation under their new leader David Cameron.

Last night the Tories had gained 300 council seats and 40 per cent of the vote - the share needed to secure power at a general election.

Mr Clarke was the most high-profile casualty. He paid the price for the foreign prisoners crisis that had made the Government look incompetent. Mr Blair said he was "sorry" to lose Mr Clarke, but felt that it was "very difficult, given the level of genuine public concern", for him to continue.

Although Mr Clarke was offered other Cabinet posts, including Defence and Trade, he decided to return to the back benches after his bid for the Foreign Office was rejected. In one of the most bitter resignations since John Major sacked his chancellor Norman Lamont, he said Mr Blair had decided he was standing in the way of reform of the Home Office.

"Although I do not agree with that judgment, I entirely accept his right to make it," Mr Clarke said.

But Labour MPs questioned why Mr Blair had not accepted Mr Clarke's offer to resign 10 days ago, which might have deflected public anger before the polls.

Mr Prescott, whose lurid affair with his secretary had made him a laughing stock and demeaned the Government, survived the reshuffle, though in a greatly emasculated role.

Although he has been made to shoulder much of the blame for Thursday night's debacle, he retains the title of Deputy Prime Minister, a full £133,997 Cabinet salary and perks that go with the office, including grace-and-favour residences at Admiralty House and Dorneywood.

He has been stripped of his departmental responsibilities and his grandly titled Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will be broken up. He will continue to chair a number of cabinet committees and have an international role, building links with China and Eastern Europe. Mr Prescott clings on in a largely titular role because Mr Blair did not want the upheaval of a contest for his elected post as deputy leader of the Labour Party.

Jack Straw lost the Foreign Office and was demoted to Leader of the Commons. Downing Street said Mr Blair regarded him as a "House of Commons man", and said that he would have responsibility for reform of the House of Lords and party funding.

But Mr Straw has paid the price for getting too close to Mr Brown, as well as appearing to be at odds with Mr Blair over America's determination to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. His recent love-in with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, irritated No 10.

Three Blairite ministers were given key portfolios. John Reid, the Cabinet trouble-shooter switches from Defence to the Home Office. But as a Scot representing a Scottish constituency, he will face criticism because many of his powers have been devolved to Edinburgh. Alan Johnson takes over the education reforms central to Mr Blair's legacy. David Miliband, a rising star, takes over the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs portfolio, with a brief to counter Mr Cameron's "green" image.

The most surprising and unexpected promotion was Margaret Beckett's appointment as the first woman Foreign Secretary. After presiding over a farm payments fiasco at Defra, and, at 63 one of the oldest members of the Cabinet, she had been tipped for retirement. But she is loyal to Mr Blair and does not plot, preferring the joys of caravanning with her husband Leo.

Mr Blair did not consult Mr Brown on the changes - a further sign that he believes the Chancellor does not have the nerve or the power base to challenge him.

The Chancellor called the local election results a "warning shot" and said he would be speaking to Mr Blair over the weekend to plot the way ahead.

There was a consolation for Mr Brown when his former economic adviser and close confidant, Ed Balls, gained his first ministerial post as economic secretary at the Treasury. Frank Dobson, one of Mr Blair's leading critics, said the changes amounted to no more than "re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic" and insisted the party needed "new management" at the top.

The Tories said it was the "anyone but me" reshuffle - and the country needed a change of government, not "just moving around a few old faces". Mr Cameron said the Conservatives were "showing there is a broad-based alternative that is building while the Government is collapsing".

I understand but am not sure I agree. looking at which offices were "cleaned out" makes me suspicious. I have no experience with the British system but Blair does not strike me as a person who ducks, he appears (Yea I know) to be one to take the punch and keep on keeping on. Here in the good old US of A. I agree with Murphys rules of government.

In government work, if you have to ask,
you're not entitled to know

Any memorandum is written not to inform the reader,
but to protect the writer

Any bureaucracy will multiply itself faster
in time of grave public concern

It's impossible to distinguish a bureaucrat sitting on his hands from one trying to cover his ass

In all government work, nothing is ever accomplished by a reasonable man.

Nothing ever gets done on schedule or within budget

When in doubt, suggest that a break-thru team be appointed

Bureaucrats who demand huge expenditures to alleviate problems always get promoted

To get action out of management, it's necessary to create the illusion of a crisis in the hope it will be acted upon

Accomplishment is inversely proportional to the volume of paper used

Anyone having supervisory responsibility for the completion of a task will say more resources are needed

At all levels of government, for every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism

The first myth of government management is that it exists

The second myth of government management is that success equals skill

If a problem causes many meetings, the meetings eventually become more important than the problem

All government workers consider "The Real World" to be a special case

The opulence of the office decor varies inversely with the productivity of the agency

No amount of genius can overcome the professional bureaucrat's preoccupation with detail

If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not fact -- it is opinion

Any simple idea will be worded in the most complicated way

Any agency expands to fit all space available... So that more space is always required

Purchases of equipment and supplies always increase to match the funds available, so these funds are never adequate

Bureaucrats are like football coaches; they have to be smart to understand the game, yet dumb enough to think it's important

The longer an employee's title, the less important the job

Every routing slip will expand until it contains the maximum number of names that can be placed on it

Secret or unnamed sources are always more credible

The effort expended by the bureaucracy in defending any error is in direct proportion to the size of the error

All bad policies are more likely to be supplemented than repealed

Bureaucrats who propose structural changes to prevent problems get early retirement

In government, the solution to a problem changes the problem

Some workers understand what they don't manage, and others manage what they do not understand

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