Sold Short

After failing to resign in April despite characterising UK PM Tony Blair’s leadership in the attack on Iraq as “reckless”, International Development Secretary Clare Short finally left her cabinet post in May. Ms. Short said that the failure to place the UN at the centre of Iraqi reconstruction efforts – breaking a promise made to her by the PM – had precipitated her departure. Replacing Short is the pro-Blair, Guyanese-born Baroness Valerie Amos – an unelected member of the House of Lords and formerly the PM’s envoy to Africa. Baroness Amos is the first black woman in cabinet.