Dr Reid not a bad bloke IMHO. He was Shadow Defence pre-1997 and he made a very good and thoughtful presentation at RUSI in the run up to the Election of that year. I think he was a bit p!$$ed off not to get Defence then.
I remember one impressive occasion when he was Min (AF) and was "playing" in a weekend exercise being controlled from Whitehall. It was dreadful weather, so the exercise was a mixture of live play and CPX-ing; some of the more adventurous serials had been cancelled as too risky. As Endex approached in the early hours of Sunday morning, all high level political decisions had been taken, so the "great and the good" were departing, leaving the SO1s to finish up (and clear up!). Reid stays - chainsmoking all the time; to be told it's all right if he wants to leave.
"I'm confused by this CPX thing; are we really going to have real troops sliding down ropes out of helicopters on a ****e night like this?"
"Yes Minister"
"Then I'm going nowhere until I know all of my people are safe!"
And he did....... can't imagine many other politicians doing likewise, least of all at 2 o'clock on a Sunday morning....