Mark Stuart: Quiet man of British politics makes some noise at last

The biggest winner has to be David Cameron who has been able to stand above the fray, increasingly playing the role of the international statesman. The Prime Minister deserves a great deal of credit for creating “Brand Cameron” – the silky-smooth, self-styled cuddly Conservative.

However the moment that this carefully constructed brand comes under threat sees unpopular policies modified or swiftly consigned to the wastepaper basket.

The latest victim of the need to maintain Brand Cameron has been the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley who has been forced to put his department’s overly ambitious Health Bill under a huge anaesthetic. With his parted grey hair and jowly face, Lansley could easily pass for an amiable Anglican vicar, but in reality he is much closer to the mad scientist, intent on conducting crazy medical experiments on our NHS.

But Lansley is not alone in having stumbled in the coalition’s first year. The otherwise impressive Education Secretary, Michael Gove, had to endure early blunders over the Building Schools for the Future programme, but has since recovered his poise, and looks set for one of the three main offices of state.

One of those top three jobs is currently occupied by William Hague who has not been an altogether convincing Foreign Secretary. That cannot be good for the Rolls Royce reputation of the Foreign Office. As one of his esteemed Tory predecessors, Douglas Hurd, once wrote: “If the engine is not running properly then the course set by the captain on the bridge becomes irrelevant.”

It seems that very few Tory ministers have emerged unscathed from the series of u-turns that have been executed in the coalition’s first year.

But one Tory minister has quietly shone. No, I don’t mean Jeremy Hunt, the rising star at Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, though he is probably one to watch for the future. Who can it be, then?

The answer may surprise you: Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Yes, the self-styled quiet man of British politics has finally turned up the volume of his political career. Still bitter at being ousted as Tory leader in 2003, IDS has developed a steely resolve to leave his mark on government policy.

Sometimes in life people need a bit of hardship in order to give them the necessary motivation to succeed. In IDS’s case, it certainly seems to be succeeding, as he undertakes a much-needed overhaul to our broken system of welfare payments.

In many respects, IDS is a classic role model for the thousands of fifty-something employees who have been forced out of their jobs and had to retrain. He’s dusted himself down, got himself another job, and has regained some of his former self-esteem.

On the Liberal Democrat end of this coalition, the biggest loser by far has been Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. Even people not interested in politics can see that Clegg has become the front man for the Coalition’s unpopular policies. As the leader of a relatively small third party, he is carrying all the weight of responsibility on his young shoulders, and you can almost feel the strain.

Fellow Liberal Democrat ministers who could help share that load, particularly Chris Huhne, are staying well below the radar, almost invisible in fact, seeking to profit should Clegg fall at some point in the future. The Environment Secretary falls into this category.

Huhne’s plotting instincts are in sharp contrast to the studied stoicism of York-born Vince Cable, who dutifully sits like a scruffy, bald eagle, chained to his precarious perch atop the Department of Trade and Industry. Cable has already had his ministerial wings clipped in recent months over taped conversations with constituents. Whether this proud bird of prey finally flies free from his captors, or is shot from the sky in the attempt, is uncertain, but it can only be a matter of time.

As far as I can see, the only ministerial winner on the Liberal Democrat side has been Danny Alexander, the mild-mannered Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Having had to step into the job following the sudden resignation of David Laws last June, Alexander has, like Iain Duncan Smith, quietly got on with the serious task of cutting public expenditure.

No-one is suggesting that Danny Alexander or Iain Duncan Smith are setting the world alight in their respective departments, but what their experience illustrates is that you don’t necessarily have to be bold and brash to make your way up the ministerial greasy pole.

What the public want from their politicians, above everything else, is competence. Perhaps there is room after all for the quiet men of British politics.

* Mark Stuart is a political analyst and biographer from York.