Since he left office in 2007, many have said that Labour will struggle to find someone who can outdo Tony Blair. The winner of three general elections. Two of them were colossal landslides, as Blair's New Labour created a coalition which could win from the Scottish Highlands to the Sussex coast. Blair's legacy may be mixed, but there is no doubting it is massive. It would take some political talent to surpass him.
And Jeremy Corbyn has done it. He has finally shown that he can outdo Tony Blair.
One of Blair's great weaknesses was reshuffles. Months of agonising were followed by hours of agony on the day. They never went to plan. The wrong decisions were made. Gordon Brown was always an obstacle to overcome. Blair so hated sacking people he once managed to let a Cabinet minister leave without telling them that they had been sacked. For a few hours, there were two people with the same government job.
Pointless new names were invented for government departments, my personal favourite being the Department of Productivity, Employment and Industry, which was hurriedly changed back to Trade and Industry when someone pointed out the minister would be the PEnI Secretary.
However, all of this pales into insignificance when Blair abolished the office of Lord Chancellor, until realising that tearing down an institution so old no one knew how old it was might pose some problems. The Lord Chancellor was not like any other cabinet role. It was ingrained into the system. The Lord Chancellor presided in the Lords, was the head of the judiciary, and was written into thousands of laws over the years, all of which became completely unworkable overnight.
The incumbent refused to agree to the changes, and so he was sacked. The new Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Falconer, was hurriedly dispatched to the House of Lords to sit on the Woolsack, as a concession to Lords and judges outraged by the botched process. As an example of how not to reshuffle your government, it came pretty high up.
Pointless new names were invented for government departments, my personal favourite being the Department of Productivity, Employment and Industry, which was hurriedly changed back to Trade and Industry when someone pointed out the minister would be the PEnI Secretary.
However, all of this pales into insignificance when Blair abolished the office of Lord Chancellor, until realising that tearing down an institution so old no one knew how old it was might pose some problems. The Lord Chancellor was not like any other cabinet role. It was ingrained into the system. The Lord Chancellor presided in the Lords, was the head of the judiciary, and was written into thousands of laws over the years, all of which became completely unworkable overnight.
The incumbent refused to agree to the changes, and so he was sacked. The new Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Falconer, was hurriedly dispatched to the House of Lords to sit on the Woolsack, as a concession to Lords and judges outraged by the botched process. As an example of how not to reshuffle your government, it came pretty high up.
And yet Corbyn has put Blair to shame. In the first two days, a grand total of one change has been made. Surely people across the land talked of nothing else on Tuesday night than the sacking of the Shadow Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport.
Or maybe they haven't noticed. Maybe they would have noticed something if Labour had been doing the job that falls to them, opposing the government. Instead, the Tories are getting away with more and more. While Labour frets over whether their Shadow Cabinet reshuffle was too slow.
So well done Jeremy. In this, at least, you've shown yourself to be more than Blair. But when it comes to elections, where it all counts, you, sir, are no Tony Blair.
Or maybe they haven't noticed. Maybe they would have noticed something if Labour had been doing the job that falls to them, opposing the government. Instead, the Tories are getting away with more and more. While Labour frets over whether their Shadow Cabinet reshuffle was too slow.
So well done Jeremy. In this, at least, you've shown yourself to be more than Blair. But when it comes to elections, where it all counts, you, sir, are no Tony Blair.
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