The Times’s story of how Bob Ainsworth came to be Defence Secretary is equal parts extraordinary and disheartening. Here are the key passages:
“Mr Ainsworth’s predecessor, John Hutton, had indicated to Mr Brown in mid-May that he was thinking of leaving the Government. Mr Hutton, recently remarried, had a compelling family reason for wanting to step down. But Mr Brown, preoccupied with the elections and the possibility of a leadership challenge, appears to have spent little time thinking about the vacancy. It wasn’t until around noon the day after the polls that he began to focus on who should oversee Britain’s military and its engagement in Afghanistan.
In the midst of a reshuffle carried out against the backdrop of political crisis, a weakened Prime Minister had fewer candidates with Cabinet experience willing to serve and more vacancies than he had expected.
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