Basildon's Angela Smith now Brown's PPS

One of our local MPs, Angela Smith, has been moved from being a minister at the Communities and Local Government department to be one of Gordon Brown's two Parliamentary Private Secretaries. A Parliamentary Private Secretary's role is to act as an assistant to a minister, it is unpaid and usually considered the first rung on the parliamentary promotion ladder, unless your boss happens to be the Prime Minister. Then it is anything but a junior role, including attendance at Cabinet meetings and acting as a key liaison between the executive and parliament. That Angela has got the job means that she must be quite highly thought of, and even though we are of different political persuasions I must say that I am not surprised. Her problem is not her ability, but the government and political tradition that she serves, but that aside I know that most Basildon and Billericay Tories will extend her their congratulations. I certainly do.