An interesting side effect of the Milburn resignation is that it means one of the bigger changes caused by the Cabinet reshuffle has been relegated to the 'in other news' sections of the reports - the abolition of the post of Lord Chancellor. The powers of the Lord Chancellor have been split into three - the constitutional role goes to the new Department of Constitutional Affairs, the appointment of judges goes to a new independent judicial appointments commission and there'll be a new 'speaker of the House of Lords'.

The first two changes, along with the metamorphosis of the Law Lords into a 'supreme court', do seem to be quite a radical change in the judicial system, though the actual extent of the changes will only be seen when the proposals for the composition of the appointments commission are made in the next couple of weeks. In purely political terms, the creation of a 'speaker of the House of Lords' could prove to be the most interesting in the short term. As the new 'speaker' (and I suspect a new name will be thought up to prevent confusion with the Speaker of the Commons) will not be a member of the cabinet, I suspect, though there hasn't been any confirmation yet, that it could well be a position elected by the members of the Lords in the same way as the Speaker of the Commons. It'll be interesting to see which members of the Lords are touted as candidates for the new position. I won't attempt to come up with a full list now, as I'd no doubt miss out some people and look foolish, but David Steel could well be a strong candidate for the position having just completed four years as Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament.

Update: Elinor Goodman's report on Channel 4 News stated that the role of the new speaker of the Lords would be determined after 'consultation with the other parties' which I expect will mean it become an elected post.