Balfour and Douglas-Home I think, from memory (with a pretty historic/fateful contribution in his later role by the former of course). And now Cameron. Any others?
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Don't really think the former can really be said to have been a huge success either. Given that his name now is very topical after his role in the current situation in the LevantOriginally posted by Evariste Euler Gauss View Post -
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Ramsay MacDonald and Neville Chamberlain, and others further back.Originally posted by Evariste Euler Gauss View PostComment
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Ah yes, I should have remembered both of those. Churchill offered Chamberlain the Ch X job apparently but he preferred to be Lord Pres of the C. For his very brief remaining time before terminal illness forced his exit.Comment
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PMs used to be ill or ancient before quitting, but with the recent rapid turnover it will probably happen again, whenever they've been through the lot and come back to Liz Truss.
Thatcher offered Heath anything she could to get him out of the country (US ambassador, NATO), but not Cabinet.Comment
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Kevin Rudd was Australia's PM, then Foreign Minister, then PM again.Comment
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Only the FT mentioning Cameron's role in the Greensill lobbying scandal or his work for the China Belt and Road project.Comment
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As for Ireland, Varadkar was the first former Taoiseach to subsequently become Tánaiste, and Martin the first ex-Taoiseach to then serve as Minister for Foreign Affairs.Comment
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The Grauniad has mentioned it in passing, in an “explainer” piece about how Cameron’s being in the Lords will affect things.Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post
Edit: Greensill, that is. Not the China stuff.Comment
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Are they reviving Cameron as a potential "good old days" leadership candidate for the time when they'll stab Sunak in his spineless back?Comment
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The murk of Greensill, let alone his credulous shilling for China and god knows what other sinecures he's accepted will not go away, this will be chipped away at for as long as this Govt lasts. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mail or Telegraph decides to go hard on it at some point.Comment
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First time since 1902. Well, in the politics of the UK (and elsewhere) the unimaginable became the possible and then the inevitable, so why not?Originally posted by G-Man View PostComment
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On a tangent ... the Home Secretary is described as "Interior Minister" in some international reporting, just as the Chancellor is the "Finance Minister". No respect for tradition, these foreigners.
To those unfamiliar with British terminology, "Home Secretary" sounds like a Microsoft product, 1990s.Comment
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The US has a few idiosyncratic ones. Secretary of State! Is that Nixon dictating letters to Kissinger, as my father used to over the phone to his secretary?
The justice minister is called Attorney General. Gives me Better Call Saul vibes. What's wrong with Secretary of Justice?
The post and communications minister was the Postmaster General, whom I imagine wearing a neat uniform and a mailman's hat. But I believe it is not a state department anymore.
Is that a nomenclature they took over or adapted from the British?Comment
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Yes, it was a Cabinet Office in Britain until comparatively recently (also in Ireland, where we preferred the title of Minister for Post and Telegraphs):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postma...United_Kingdom
This side of the pond, "Attorney General" is the title given to the Government's senior legal advisor, and is separate from the Justice Minister (or Home Secretary as you say in GB).Comment
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Justice Minister is slightly different to Home Secretary in U.K., Irish justice minister combines both functions, Justice is a devolved power in U.K., but not home Office evil like immigration rules and enforcement.Last edited by Lang Spoon; 14-11-2023, 11:56.Comment
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The Postmaster General never had a "communications" role because the US never had a state-owned telecommunications company.
The office and title came directly from the UK. It ceased being a Cabinet office in 1971.
The US also has a Surgeon General, who is sort of the Administration's senior health advisor, but has much less power than a Health Minister, given the absence of national health care.
Some of the occupants of that office have enjoyed engaging in cosplay.
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To make things really weird, Kissinger wasn't actually Secretary of State until the last 11 months of Nixon's presidency. The vast majority of his service was under Ford. The actual officeholder was William P. Rogers, who must hold some kind of record for the emptiest suit in US Cabinet history. He had some chops -- he was Attorney General under Eisenhower, responsible for bringing federal troops to integrate Little Rock's Central High School -- but was completely disinterested in foreign policy (famously remarking "You don't actually expect me to read this, do you?" to a State Department aide that handed him a big book written by analysts priming him on world issues), essentially allowing Nixon to sideline a State Department he had long disliked and distrusted and run foreign policy through the National Security Council, headed by Kissinger.Originally posted by G-Man View PostComment
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Justice is only devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland, not to Wales, something that Plaid Cymru frequently make an issue of.Comment
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