From Lords to the cabinet
If cabinet ministers in the UK must be members of Parliament, what does a PM do if a person he wants hasn't been elected to Parliament? (Hint: Perhaps Gordon Brown wants to re-think the proposal to elect members of the House of Lords.)I noticed but didn't pay particular attention to the appointment by PM Brown of one of Tony Blair's "old boys" to the cabinet. Then Alan Carter wrote from Oxford pointing out this Telegraph article.
Peter Mandelson's route to cabinet follows modern precedent
"Peter Mandelson's route back into the top flight of British politics, by joining the House of Lords, is not new."Sidestepping the electorate, Prime Ministers can use their powers of patronage to bring political appointees into government while still satisfying the requirements of parliamentary democracy.
"On taking power last year, Gordon Brown used a series of appointments to the Lords to bring expertise from outside into what he billed his 'Government of all the talents', but with distinctly mixed success.
"The former director-general of the CBI, Sir Digby Jones - now Lord Jones of Birmingham...
"Mark Malloch-Brown, the former Deputy Secretary General of the UN who was brought into the Foreign Office as Lord Malloch-Brown while Admiral Sir Alan West, a hero of the Falklands War, joined the Ministry of Defence as Lord West...
"When criticised for the 'presidential' practice of bringing non parliamentarians into government Labour cited the precedent of Lord Young. Plucked from the world of business by Margaret Thatcher in 1984..."
Labels: leadership, politics, UK
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:40 AM
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