To be fair, Paul Drayson does not control the purse strings, so does not always have the means to be able to do what he would want to.
Alone among New Labour politicians, he is someone I'd actually defend, however.
He's an impressive bloke, unlike every other Min DP I've met and dealt with - he is charismatic, articulate and straightforward, and speaks very well. He also has a phenomenal grasp and understanding of his brief - he's someone who could talk intelligently about air power and aircraft capabilities to someone like me, and he has a similar grasp of land and sea systems, too. If ever he's looking for a lower-stress job, he'd make a perfect editor for JDW!
He's not the usual pulic school/Oxbridge PPE/Classics barrister/professional politician fop - he's grounded in the real world - he trained as a production engineer (BSc from Aston, and a PhD in Robotics) and is a successful businessman and entrepreneur.
All that only makes him a talker, and not a doer, of course, but I'd rather have a straight-talking, intelligent and interested bloke in the job than a second rate political appointee like Willy Bach, Liz Symons, and the various Tory occupants of the post before them.