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Mr Woodward has been tipped to take over as Defence Secretary — one of the plum Cabinet jobs. It is a proposed move that has caused dismay and resentment in some sections of the Labour Party, since Mr Woodward has been in their ranks for less than a decade. He defected from the Tories as an MP in 1999 and was given a safe Labour seat two years later. And the current Defence Secretary, former NIO Minister Des Browne, is being weighed up for a return to Belfast as the head of the new department.

In Scotland and Wales it is recognised that their devolution is a process which is not yet complete. All parties there, including the Conservative Party, are promising more powers and a general expansion of status and remit for their National Parliaments and governments. So the outstanding question, to my way of thinking, is what is going to happen in England!