What's the word on Margaret Beckett? Is she a comer or just another fair to middling pol?
Tony Blair's appointment of her as Foreign Secretary has come under increasing criticism, with many suggesting that Beckett is out of her league in the role. According to the Times she does not stand up well in comparison with the previous Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. The Spectator recently described her as, "at heart, an old, isolationist, pacifist Leftist" and has called on her to resign.
She also saw some criticism in April 2006 when the details of Ministers' use of RAF aircraft for official travel were published. Beckett was discovered to have taken 134 flights on ministerial business between 2002 and March 2005, flying 102,673 miles. The press noted also that Lionel Beckett frequently accompanied her on trips, leading to his being described as the "political equivalent of a Wag" (the latter being an acronym used to describe the wives and girlfriends of England football players) (Times, 23 July 2006).
In August 2006, 37 Labour party members in her constituency left the party and joined the Liberal Democrats, criticising her approach to the fighting in Lebanon.
Her seat of Derby South as of 2006 has only a majority of just over 5,000 and due to people in her constituency vowing to vote for the Liberal Democrats at the next election, her seat is no longer seen as a safe Labour Seat with many speculating that she could lose her seat at the next election
Which I think just about sums her up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Beckett