[section9]

Beckett, the new British Foreign Secretary, will be full of herself, I'll bet. She'll walk in all tough and demanding, trying to score points with Gordon Brown so she can be kept on when Tony is purged by next Night of the Long Knives.

Poor woman; she'll forget that Condi's a bit too butch to be pushed around by some lapsed ideologue, I'll wager. Condi deals with Chicoms and Russians every day. A former CND lefty should be easy for Condi to handle after she's laid down the law at the first meeting.

She won't walk out so tough.

But you'll never know. Both of them will be all smiles.

As Condi always says, "power matters".

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[1066AD]

Yes, the only reason to keep Blair is to stall Brown, a truly sinister character let alone the question why, in this day and age, the English should have a Scot as PM.

[Winniesboy]

It's a common mistake to underestimate Margaret Beckett. She's a survivor ( the longest serving of any Labour minster), tough and nothing if not pragmatic.