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John Hutton
From ARRSEpedia
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| Weasel or squaddies bezzer? |
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John Matthew Patrick Hutton is the Labour MP for Barrow and Furness in Cumbria and is currently the Secretary of State for Defence.
His 6000 majority at the last election puts him in the danger zone for loss of job come the next election.
One of the serial liar Blair's closest buds in parliament. His ministerial career is as follows...
- Department of Health from 1998,
- Member of the Privy Council in 2001.
- Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office (post 2005 general election)
- Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2 November 2005)
When the Celestial Navigator finally pissed off, Hutton survived in cabinet looking like he merely switched bosom buddies. With Gordon Brown needing Blairite support, decent roles were forthcoming. Following Blair's resignation ...
- Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (June 2007)
- Secretary of State for Defence in the cabinet reshuffle on 3 October 2008
While no current Labour MP has served thus making you wonder how the hell they can shape a defence policy that involves squaddies, Hutton has at least a vague clue what he's dealing with. In 2008 he wrote a book. "Kitchener's Men - The King's own Royal Lancasters on the Western Front 1915-18" (Pen and Sword Books, 2008). Its a fairly grim read about the reality of the Western Front for chaps from the Furness area and has been fairly well reviewed on Amazon.
To be honest, having watched him perform in front of select committees, he comes over a little bit shifty but then he's a career politician which means the weasel gene is fairly dominant. His explanation to the committee on the subject of training where he admitted that training for theatres other than Afghanistan/Iraq was being neglected simply hammered home how overstretched the UK's troops are.
No doubt this page will be expanded as we report John Boy's defence of handing the shoite end of the stick to HM Forces.
