Eric Pickles seems to have made a splash since becoming Secretary of State for Communities (it always seems to me that this title sounds decidedly Stalinist). He has moved with alacrity in the corridors of power and been seen to do, rather than talk about policies. There was an article in yesterday's Telegraph decidedly favourable to Pickles by a former colleague, Paul Goodman:

“Big Eric Pickles may not be beautiful, but he's the Tories' action man

The Communities Secretary is proving to be the unexpected star of the Coalition, says Paul Goodman.
But look at what's happened since his appointment to the Department of Communities and Local Government. In little more than three months, Pickles has announced an end to regional housebuilding targets, home insurance packs, the comprehensive area assessment system for local councils, the Standards Board, the proposed unitary local authority for Norwich, the local government office for London, and bin taxes (the last provoking a simmering row with Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary).
He's also released details online of all department spending over £500, instructed local authorities to do the same, tightened rules about councils publishing newspapers, and attacked his Labour predecessors for squandering taxpayers' money on official photographs and fancy furniture, all the while trumpeting a new "golden age for local government".”

Paul Goodman, The Daily Telegraph, (is a former Conservative MP, who on resigning in 2010 said "a House in which professional politics predominates, entrenching and empowering a taxpayer-dependent political class distinct and separate from those who elect them...for better or worse, this future Commons isn't for me".)
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/7964611/Big-Eric-Pickles-may-not-be-beautiful-but-hes-the-Tories-action-man.html)

The Pickles Papers

An alternative view to the rise to power of Eric Pickles is given in the left-wing book by Tony Grogan, The Pickles Papers. According to the book with the exception of the four years in his youth that Pickles spent as a student in a solicitors office he does not appear to have had a job outside politics. The Conservatives gained control of Bradford by using the Mayoral tied vote, manipulating politics in a way that the left did in Liverpool.

The book is available to read online:

http://www.1in12events.co.uk/archive/publi...les/pickles.htm


I find it all very interesting, as I have said in past posts I think Mr Pickles has aspirations for higher places, a politician to watch.

I have say as a civil servant for EP's Dept I work for him and that is an embassament in itself. He doesn't have a clue. Give me a Labour minister to work for anyday. Sorry EP you've not won me over!