People at the top after Major's first changes

characteristics of the new people at the helm.

CIGAR-smoking, beer-drinking, untidy Kenneth Clarke, appointed

yesterday to take over from Norman Lamont as Chancellor, is not

everyone's idea of a Cabinet Minister.

But he does have some popular appeal with his swashbuckling,

devil-may-care approach to politics, which has seen him rise through the

ranks almost to the very top job.

He maintained yesterday that he did not want to become Prime Minister

-- but they all say that and there was talk after Mrs Thatcher's demise

that had Mr Clarke thrown his hat into the ring he might just have got

there.

In his various ministerial posts, he has taken on the doctors and the

teachers, beating both over the head with his unrelenting determination

to bring about reform.

Now it is his task to address the economy, budgets, and the exchange

rate mechanism of the European Monetary System.

Part of the thinking behind Mr Major's move yesterday may be that the

Government needs a foil to Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown -- arguably

the best performer in the Shadow Cabinet, and that the Government's

economic policy is crying out for a good salesman.

Mr Clarke, whose chief sartorial characteristic is an enthusiasm for

suede shoes, can be utterly dismissive at the despatch box, trying to

sweep aside opponents in a style which would not be out of place in a

pub argument.

He has been in Parliament since 1970, and was all over the place as a

junior Minister before attaining senior office. There probably is no

such thing as a popular Chancellor, but Mr Clarke has a better chance

than most.

Gillian Shephard

MOVED from Employment to Agriculture in the reshuffle, Mrs Gillian

Shephard has made something of a reputation for herself at Westminster

since rocketing to Cabinet office from relative obscurity.

High heels, a bright smile, and smart clothes have guaranteed that she

does not go unnoticed at Westminster, and are combined with a ready wit.

In speeches at functions, Mrs Shephard frequently draws attention to

the fact that she is often mistaken for Edwina Currie, but her

self-deprecation masks a steely, right-wing determination.

Her move to agriculture might, on the face of it, look like a

demotion, especially since it looks as though a woman has been removed

from a key Cabinet job, but there are two factors to bear in mind.

First, with an agricultural constituency in Norfolk, Mrs Shephard had

declared an interest in the job and, second, there is talk of the

Department of Employment disappearing into an expanded Department of

Trade and Industry.

Mrs Shephard, 53, was first elected to parliament in 1987 after a

background in local government in and around Norwich. She served as a

parliamentary private secretary and as a member of the Commons Select

Committee on Social Services before achieving ministerial office in

1989.

Her special interests, unsurprisingly, are listed as health,

education, and penal affairs, with recreations listed as ''music,

gardening, and France''. The French may now have cause for concern.

David Hunt

THE new Employment Secretary, Mr David Hunt, has a reputation as a

solid Commons performer, given to plodding away at a problem rather than

trying to find instant solutions.

He has spent the past three years as Secretary of State for Wales, a

job which he inherited from Mr Peter Walker. Mr Walker ran the office

with typical flamboyance, but Mr Hunt brought to it a rather more

measured, calm approach, which brought its own results.

He faces a difficult task in taking over from Mrs Gillian Shephard,

who had established a fairly high profile in the Department of

Employment, but it is likely that Mr Hunt will find that he enjoys a

return to the rough-and tumble of

a mainstream Commons job.

He has, after all, been through much of it before. He was

vice-chairman of the Conservative Party from 1983-84, parliamentary

under-secretary of state at the Department of Energy from 1984-87, and

minister for local government and inner cities at the Department of the

Environment from 1989-90.

Mr Hunt, MP for Wirral West with a majority of just over 11,000, has

interests in cricket and walking, and has had useful Commons experience

working in the often fraught atmosphere of the whips' office.

Secretaries of State for Wales always face comparisons with

Secretaries of State for Scotland. Scottish Secretary Ian Lang has

impressed the Tory camp with his handling of issues north of the Border,

and it is clear that Mr Hunt has done the same with his handling of

issues in Wales.

John Gummer

A READY cheerfulness and friendly manner are ever present as John

Gummer goes about his tasks. He takes over at Environment.

He has been in the Cabinet since July 1989 as agriculture minister and

has battled for reform of the EC Common Agricultural Policy and to

protect British farmers.

Mr Gummer, 53, first came to prominence as Tory Party chairman under

Mrs Thatcher.

The son of a churchman, Mr Gummer was educated at Cambridge and was

chairman of Cambridge University Conservative Association.

He pursued a publishing career before going into politics.

After fighting Greenwich in 1964 and 1966, he entered Parliament as MP

for Lewisham West in 1970.

He was parliamentary private secretary to the agriculture minister in

1972 and a vice-chairman of the Conservative Party from 1972-74.

Mr Gummer lost his seat in 1974 and re-entered Parliament in 1979.

His ministerial career included being a whip and a junior minister at

the Department of Employment before becoming Tory Party chairman in

1983.

He was effectively demoted to become a minister of state at

agriculture in 1985 and then moved to environment as local goverment

minister in 1988.

Mr Gummer earned the nickname ''Postman Pat'' after arranging to be

filmed by television cameras delivering leaflets to households about the

introduction of the poll tax.

Away from politics, he has opposed the Church of England's move to

allow the ordination of women priests.

Married with two sons and two daughters, he was MP for Lewisham West

from 1970-74, for Eye, Suffolk, from 1979-83 and has been the member for

Suffolk Coastal since 1983.

Michael Howard

THE Prime Minister's determination to keep a safe pair of hands on one

of the most difficult jobs in Government is underlined by the

appointment of Michael Howard to the Home Office.

His style in the Commons is almost mocking, always confident, and

never anything other than detailed.

He has handled some very tricky stuff, such as the poll tax when he

was minister for local government from 1987-88, and the privatisation of

water in England and Wales as secretary of state for the environment.

He also had a spell in the cauldron of being secretary of state for

employment during a difficult time for the Government, but always has

endeared himself to the back benches with his sureness of touch.

A heavyweight right-winger, he has a great interest in trade union law

reform and lists his recreations as football and baseball.

Welsh-born, he was thought at one time to be a possible future Welsh

Secretary, and has been variously described as ''one of the rising hopes

of the stern, unbending Tories'', and ''one of those clever,

industrious, ambitious lawyers whom the Conservative Party has been

adept at spotting for difficult, delicate or disagreeable tasks''.

He is likely to face any number of disagreeable tasks as Home

Secretary (Tory conferences are notoriously unforgiving of Home

Secretaries, perceiving them as soft because of the official line on

hanging) but Mr Howard's forensic skill, coupled with his right-wing

credentials, at least gives him hope.

John Redwood

THE somewhat surprising choice as the new Secretary of State for

Wales, John Redwood, is a confident, brash, unrepentant right-winger,

widely recognised as having a formidable style at the despatch box.

Few of his colleagues have his ability to take part in Commons

Question Time without an obvious reference to a written brief, and he

frequently relies on gut feeling to get his message across.

It will be one of the more intriguing Westminster spectacles to see

how Mr Redwood goes down with the Welsh, but his combative approach

might make him many enemies.

His right-wing background is almost impeccable. He was educated at

Kent College, Canterbury, and Magdalen College, Oxford, and has a

history as an investment analyst and -- perhaps unflatteringly -- as a

bank clerk with N M. Rothschild.

He was an adviser to the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee

in 1981, and was the head of Mrs Thatcher's Downing Street policy unit

from 1983 until 1985.

Mr Redwood, who is the MP for Wokingham with a healthy majority of

25,709, has been the author of several books and articles, especially on

wider share ownership and popular capitalism, and has made his name both

in the Department of the Environment and the Department of Trade and

Industry.

His recreations are listed in one book of Commons profiles as cricket

and water sports, which may not entirely endear him to the Welsh.

Scottish ghosts

spirited back

to haunt rivals

THE junior levels of the reshuffle see a return to ministerial office

of two Scottish ghosts from the past -- Mr Michael Ancram and Mr Iain

Sproat.

Mr Ancram, who has been given a job in the Northern Ireland Office,

was a Scottish Office minister from 1983 to 1987, but then lost his

Edinburgh South seat and entered the political wilderness.

.

His return to the Westminster political scene came when he

successfully fought Devises at the last General Election, emerging with

a majority of 19,712. An advocate, he has shown an appealing, cavalier

approach to exchanges on the floor of the House.

Mr Sproat, who has been appointed as the ''Minister for Sport,'' is

another colourful, exiled Scot. He has seen ministerial office but was

off the Westminster scene for some time. He was MP for Aberdeen South

from 1970 until 1983, but then decided to contest, unsuccessfully,

Roxburgh and Berwickshire in the 1983 General Election.

Ironically, Aberdeen South was won for the Conservatives by Gerry

Malone, while the the Liberal Democrats' Archy Kirkwood took Roxburgh

and Berwickshire. Mr Sproat suffered allegations that he was a ''carpet

bagger'' in his attempts to secure a seat south of the Border that would

bring him back to Westminster, but he eventually secured Harwich at the

last election with a majority of more than 17,000.

His chief passion in life is cricket, making him rather well qualified

for his new responsibilities.