On the face of it not great news. I had a lot of time for Wallace as DefSec. My only slight qualification to that is that Wallace's direct and straight talking approach - while something many including me welcomed and found refreshing - was not always the best approach in the world of diplomacy and also Whitehall manoeuvring. Again on the face if it, someone who knows the arse end of bugger all about defence has been appointed to avoid rocking the boat on issues such as defence funding. On the other hand, politically he is a relatively big figure in the pool of candidates and will want to be seen to be a success in the job, so the absence of direct public confrontation MIGHT not prove to be as bad as we might expect. OK I'm clutching at straws, but I'm also conscious that the world of politics is seldom black and white. And then of course there's the looming election...