"here was a time when Defence, Home Office and Foreign Office were considered to be the BIG 3. How times have changed! "
The last powerful DefSec was Healey - and that wasn't so much because the Labour party thought it was important but because he basically refused to be moved so after about 5 years he'd outlasted all the senior Civil Servants and knew all their dodges and where the Treasury had buried the bodies
Like him or loathe him Gordon Brown achieved much the same as Chancellor - the UK Civil Service LOVE reshuffles as they got a constant stream of people who haven't a clue what the job is all about