Cameron's cabinet should be viewed realistically

David Cameron, the new prime minister, has announced a number of new cabinet and other ministerial appointments. SPUC's initial assessment is as follows:

More likely than not to obstruct the pro-life cause:

• David Cameron, prime minister
• Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister
• George Osborne, chancellor
• Chris Huhne, energy secretary
• Andrew Lansley, health secretary
• Andrew Mitchell, international development secretary
• Ken Clarke, justice secretary (as health minister in the Thatcher government, he helped ensure the success of pro-abortion amendments and the defeat of anti-abortion amendments to the HFE Act 1990)
• Danny Alexander, Scottish secretary
• David Laws, chief secretary to the treasury (cf. House of Commons, 28 Jan 2010)
• Cheryl Gillan, Welsh secretary
• Sir George Young, leader of the Commons

More likely that not to be helpful or unobstructive to the pro-life cause:

• Theresa May, home secretary
• William Hague, foreign secretary
• Eric Pickles, communities secretary
• Baroness Warsi, Conservative party co-chairman
• Dr Liam Fox, defence secretary
• Michael Gove, education secretary
• Caroline Spelman, environment secretary
• Owen Paterson, Northern Ireland secretary
• Philip Hammond, transport secretary
• Iain Duncan Smith, work and pensions secretary
• Damian Green, immigration minister
• David Willetts, university, science and skills minister

Could go either way, depending on the issue:

• Vince Cable, business secretary
• Jeremy Hunt, culture secretary
• Lord Strathclyde, leader of the Lords
• Francis Maude, cabinet office minister
• Nick Herbert, policing reform minister
• Oliver Letwin, cabinet office minister
• Greg Clark, communities minister
• Grant Shapps, housing minister

David Cameron and Andrew Lansley, the new health secretary, have made clear their support for wider access to abortion, under their guise of support for reducing the upper time-limit for social abortions. Now is the time, not for some headlong rush at abortion law reform, but rather for strong representations to ministers and MPs not to take up the previous government's plans to impose anti-life sex education on schools.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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