In the classic Westminster system (UK, Canada), you don’t have to have a seat in Parliament to be appointed to Cabinet.
Strong constitutional convention says that you have to get a seat quickly, in one of the two houses, either by election or by appointment.
Canada has had two PMs in the Senate, and the occasional Cabinet minister.
We also had one Defence Minister who never sat in either house; got appointed to Cabinet, stood for election; defeated. Stood for election again; defeated. Resigned.
As safe as Mid Bed and Tamworth?
More seriously, as a Ministerial appointee, Cameron is dodgy as fuck. There was the whole Panama Papers thing; his involvement with Greensill encompasses both giving his chum Lex Greensill official access to government departments and nakedly lobbying for them once he’d left office (until they went spectacularly insolvent, that is). Then there’s the fact that he’s currently a paid lobbyist for China which is a slightly awkward position for a Foreign Secretary to be in. Especially given Sunak has repudiated Cameron-era pro-China policy in favour of a more skeptical/adversarial approach that favours national security over trade.
I don’t think this has been posted yet. Fine Guardian headline:
Better yet, the last word is missing. Sweet.
j
AAAND our democracy is finally dead. Why bother with having elected officials when you can just stack your cabinet with unelected randoms?
And the hysterical laughter that follows!
I’m telling you guys, you need to elect Larry as PM. He could scarcely do worse.
What about Lord Buckethead? He’s even a Lord! How can you argue that?
Meh… no big diff when the elected officials don’t have any better idea of what they’re doing…
At least presidentialist-system republics have the out that you can pretend to appoint an expert on the specific subject out of academia or industry rather than “have” to pick a willing member of the party majority.
I was fascinated by seeing the door at No. 10 open and close with no visible door-handler. I haven’t paid much attention to this before. Is this the way it’s always done?
See fact #4
(God knows what this has to do with Gardeners’ Question Time - I was just looking for a cite for something I thought I knew - the door only opens from the inside.)
j
ETA wiki as a second cite: 10 Downing Street - Wikipedia
Interesting. Thanks.
Right. if Larry wants in, a person outside has to knock on the door to get it opened for him.
What do you mean, “finally”? It has always been the case in the UK that you can appoint unelected lords to ministerial and even cabinet positions, and that you can appoint someone to the House of Lords so that you can then or later make them a Minister. This isn’t that unusual. Even without googling it I can recall Lord Young, appointed to the House of Lords by Margaret Thatcher so she could put him in Cabinet. He ended up as Secretary of State for Trade, IIRC, but never held elected office of any kind. And more recently David Frost was appointed to the House of Lords and then to the Cabinet in fairly short order.
Whatever you do, don’t tell him about the king.
*Her.
And I don’t need non Brits preaching to me about our political system. The Lords has been a shitshow since forever. But this latest move is just an additional pile on to the Conservatives desperate grip on power. The electorate haven’t had chance to vote on who they’d like as PM since Johnson. Their mandate is non existent.
Back to Sunak and Braverman… and the inevitable
There’s way to much to quote in a representative way. But I enjoyed this.
Mrs Braverman said Mr Sunak had failed “to rise to the challenge posed by the increasingly vicious antisemitism and extremism displayed on our streets”.
“I have become hoarse urging you to consider legislation to ban the hate marches and help stem the rising tide of racism, intimidation and terrorist glorification threatening community cohesion,” she added, accusing the PM of putting off “tough decisions in order to minimise political risk to yourself”.
Racism and intimidation, huh? I’m saying nuthin’.
j
It’s not racism when we do it because We are the good Us and They are the bad Them.
As I’m sure has been suggested, she’s been trying to get sacked for awhile just to pull this exact stunt and use it to push her own importance. Next up: the Brave Boys.
Interesting that she says there was a signed document. I’d expect that to emerge at some point.
And the blue touchpaper has been lit: