John Reid is a Catholic, a former communist and a chain-smoker with a reputation as a tough negotiator. He has enjoyed a blessed career within Tony Blair's administration, starting at the Ministry of Defence and becoming the front man for getting the government out of crises.
To his new job he brings the deep emotional understanding of Northern Ireland afforded to west of Scotland Catholics. A few things are very important to him. The first is his PhD in economics. With the didactic's pride he is keen that people refer to him as "doctor". It is badge of achievement for a man who began life thinking such titles were beyond his reach.
The second is guitars. Unusually for a new Labour politician, Dr Reid has interests beyond politics. He is passionate about playing the guitar and is said to be accomplished. He likes folk music and gypsy rhythms and is known as a man who likes to party.
Which takes us to his third quality, the self-confidence born of moving from a poor working-class childhood to the highest echelons of power. He has a lot to be proud about. He was born in the mining community of Cardowne in Lanarkshire 53 years ago. Tony Blair was also born in the area, but on the other side of the tracks. Reid's father was a postman and instilled the value of education in his son. Lanarkshire was once heavily industrialised and has the reputation of breeding "hard men". It is also the crucible of sectarianism in Scotland.
Reid went to school in Coatbridge before reading history at Stirling University where he took his PhD in economics. He joined the Communist Party there, having been politicised by the poverty he witnessed while working for an insurance firm in Glasgow. He says of his former radicalism: "I used to believe in communism and I used to believe in Santa Claus".
He then worked for the Labour Party as a researcher and became the scourge of the left when he assisted Neil Kinnock's purge on Militant in the mid-1980s. Crucial to his thinking is the idea that political theory has to be relevant to contemporary society. In other words, Marxism is fine and well for 150 years ago but not now.
Reid was elected MP for Motherwell North in 1987. Boundary changes mean the seat is now Hamilton North and Belshill. His first appointment was as armed forces minister. Up to then he had been one of Westminster's party animals. Stories abound of his hard drinking. Now he says he is teetotal, prompted by the responsibilities of office.
He shone at the Ministry of Defence. A BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary shows him charming generals and civil servants while his boss, the then defence secretary George Robertson looks on enviously. Robertson can't have liked it, given one MP's observation that Reid is "not as vain as George Robertson, but very vain".
He was then appointed transport minister before being moved to secretary of state for Scotland. Since devolution for Scotland, many have seen the secretary of state as a title without a job. Reid's main function was to act as a brake on Scotland's new government getting ideas above what ardent unionists regard as its station. Though in favour of devolution, Reid is a Westminster loyalist through and through.
Though officially denied, he and Scotland's late first minister Donald Dewar argued often and did not trust each other. Perhaps realising that these rows merely provoked further debate on the need for a secretary of state, Downing Street directed Reid's talents to other areas. He became, in the words of the TV presenter Jeremy Paxman, the "minister for embarrassments".
Whenever there was a crisis, Reid would be despatched to defend the government. Articulate and charming, his Scots working class tones were deployed to rebut the impression that new Labour was composed of arrogant, upper-class Englishmen. The undercurrent of menace in his voice also gave the coded message that if he said something would be done, then it would be done.
It is a menace his enemies suggest is all too real. He stands accused of intimidating witnesses in a parliamentary inquiry. Westminster's Commissioner for Standards Elizabeth Filkin said Reid attempted to "frustrate" her investigation into claims that he used public money to employ his son as a Labour Party election campaigner. The inquiry found against Reid but the Common's Standards and Privileges Committee rejected her findings.
His childhood sweetheart wife Cathie died two years ago and he is now said to be in love with film-maker Karine Adler, who made the award-winning Under the Skin. He is a devoted fan of Celtic football club. Perhaps the detail that tells the most about him is that he telephones his mother every day. In an age of robotic or just plain dull politicians, Reid stands out as a character who can take the knocks. His only problem is to overcome his self-confessed lack of subtlety, or the knocks might start to hurt.
