No sooner do we report Norman Baker’s promotion to the home office than the Prime Minister tweets out the news of his replacement: Baroness (Susan) Kramer, the first Lib Dem candidate for the London mayoralty and later MP for Richmond Park — in which role she helped lead opposition to Labour’s proposals for a third runway at Heathrow. More recently she served as a Lib Dem peer on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.
Baroness Kramer has been appointed as Minister of State at @transportgovuk #reshuffle
— UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) October 7, 2013
* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.
3 Comments
Norman Baker was Parliamentary Under Secretary at the DfT, so surely Baroness Kramer hasn’t replaced him, but rather Simon Burns who was the previous Minister of State at the DfT.
It’s really good news to have a proper transport minister in the Lords, where transport issues are debated often and with lots of knowledge – even better to have a Liberal – and evern better still that it’s Susan!
Tony
Susan always seems more concerned with preventing a third runway at Heathrow, than with the general principle of restraint on aviation in general and in London, the South East and East of England in particular.
I hope this appointment will not mean that, instead of being resisted, extra runways for London are dumped on Essex.
Improved interconnection between rail services and more direct flights abroad from other regions of England would relieve the demand for more runways near London.