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Hague back in Cameron reshuffle (BBC, 12/07/05)

New Tory leader David Cameron has begun naming his frontline team, bringing in ex-leader William Hague and keeping David Davis as shadow home secretary.

Mr Hague becomes shadow foreign secretary, while his predecessor Liam Fox moves to the defence brief. [...]

The Tory leader, who says he wants to move away from "Punch and Judy" politics, said during prime minister's questions that he would back Mr Blair's controversial education reforms.

Cameron gives Duncan Smith social justice role (Matthew Tempest, December 7, 2005, Guardian Unlimited)

The new Conservative party leader, David Cameron, today announced his first policy initiative, appointing his predecessor Iain Duncan Smith to head up a new social justice policy group.

In his first public outing as leader, Mr Cameron visited a school for disadvantaged Afro-Caribbean boys in London's East End to make the announcement - where he also received a 12-point "lesson in leadership" from the pupils.

The policy group, one of several to be announced over the next few days, will report back in 18 months time - in plenty of time to feed into the party's policy platform for the next election.

Announcing the initiative, Mr Cameron said he wanted it to tackle "the causes and consequences of poverty, family breakdown, drug rehabilitation and care for the elderly".

It is based on the work of the Commission for Social Justice (CSJ), a centre-right group established by Mr Duncan Smith after his ignominious ousting from the Tory leadership two years ago.

Pretty big time cabinet, especially for such a fresh leader, and it's brilliant to back Blair on Third Way reforms.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 7, 2005 1:59 PM