Alan Johnson
As predicted in this blog earlier, neither Ed Balls nor his wife Yvette Cooper made it to Shadow Chancellor. Both have been given decent high profile jobs, but both would have been easy pickings for the Coalition if either had shadowed the Treasury. Alan Johnson, who I thought months ago would be a good replacement for Gordon Brown, is a good choice by Ed Milliband. AJ is not an economist but he understands that Labour has to have credible alternatives to the Coalition’s austerity programme and no cuts till whenever cannot be one of them.
Altogether the Shadow Cabinet looks fit for purpose, though the shape of that purpose will not be clear until the results of the Spending Review are known. Not long to wait now.