Tom Richmond: Cameron must play to strengths of his team

IF David Cameron comes to power, he will head one of the most inexperienced government teams on record. Very few of his potential Cabinet ministers will have had experience of high office – William Hague and Ken Clarke are the exceptions.

This lack of knowhow certainly put Tony Blair at a disadvantage when New Labour ended 18 years of Tory reign in 1997. Though his top team contained experienced political hands, the early years were dogged by uncertainty over how to enact their policy programme.

Take law and order. Having promised to be "tough on crime", Jack Straw, Blair's first Home Secretary, found himself at the mercy of Home Office bureaucrats who simply refused to change their modus operandi. They were just resigned to a perpetual rise in crime.

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At least Labour did not inherit the biggest budget deficit on record – the fate that will befall the ultimate winner of the 2010 election.

If that is Cameron, I predict that he will, very quickly, become one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers on record. He simply will not be able to impose his will on the Civil Service – and many of his policy pledges will quickly become worthless.

This is why Cameron needs to think very carefully about the roles that he will offer Hague and Clarke, two individuals who, with the benefit of hindsight, are likely to be more effective Ministers this time.

Can Cameron afford to have Hague out of the country, representing Britain on the foreign stage, when his party is imploding at home over the economy – and the stock market is in freefall?

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No. Why not have Hague closer to home – and recall Sir Malcolm Rifkind to the Foreign Office for a second stint?

And wouldn't Clarke be better off at the Treasury, either as Chancellor or shoring up George Osborne as Chief Secretary, rather than having a wide-ranging business role? Yes, he would.

It may be too late for Cameron to reshuffle his team so close to the election – but he shouldn't hesitate to do so if he becomes PM. For, once he opens the door of 10 Downing Street, he will need all the help, and all the friends, in the world to confront the economic crisis.

MICHAEL Heseltine, the former Deputy Prime Minister, was full of bonhomie the other night – and still oozing charisma ahead of his 77th birthday.

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As he arrived at the launch of former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd's new book, Lord Heseltine was immediately swamped by Tory grandees imploring him to "take the fight" to Peter Mandelson, the mastermind behind Labour's political fightback.

Given Mandelson's track record – Heseltine had a similar role in the last Tory government under John Major – he would clearly relish the role.

The trouble is that Tory election strategists seem strangely reluctant to utilise the experience of former politicians whose wisdom might

just prevent past mistakes from

being repeated.

IF you're fed up with your road being permanently dug up, there's only one person to blame – Lord Heseltine's nemesis, Margaret Thatcher.

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Who says so? None other that Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who succeeded Heseltine as MP in Henley-on-Thames.

He's now trying to introduce new guidelines in the capital that keep roadworks to a minimum.

He says the country would not be facing such a dilemma if it hadn't been for Mrs Thatcher's decision to open up the telecommunications industry to competition.

WHAT does it say about Britain today when 20,000 people called in one day to apply for just 60 jobs with North Yorkshire Police?

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Here are three possibilities. Is this an "emphatic demonstration of public confidence in North Yorkshire Police" – the words used by a Force spokesman? Is it an indication of the scale of Yorkshire's economic woes? Or is it evidence that many people believe they're better off in the public sector – complete with the accompanying pay, pensions and privileges?

As a betting man, my money's on the latter.

A SURVEY out this month reveals that commuters would like to see television sets on trains. One in three wanted environmentally-friendly technology to be developed so that lights and heating on carriages would be automatically turned off or adjusted depending how many people were travelling.

I agree, given how some commuters, over a working lifetime, can spend almost a year travelling to and from work. But, given Northern Rail's recent record, I think travellers locally have far more modest expectations – like being given accurate information about whether their actual train is running or not.

IT'S not just Northern Rail which is giving a bad name to train travel. So, too, is East Coast – the Government-run service from London King's Cross to York.

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My reserved seat for a train home last week was for a non-existent carriage. I later discovered Carriage G, as printed on the ticket, was, in fact, Carriage B – a piece of logic that only John Prescott, the service's unofficial champion, could have devised.

The former Deputy Prime Minister and class warrior will also have been intrigued by the catering arrangements. Staff shortages meant there was no trolley service for those in cattle class – but there was an "at seat" service for first-class ticket holders.

I can only assume that some of our expenses-laden MPs were travelling on the said train.