| Great Offices Of State |
Article Index for Great |
Website Links For Great |
Information AboutGreat Offices Of State |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GREAT OFFICES OF STATE | |
| politics of the united kingdom | |
|
The Great Offices of State in the United Kingdom are the four most senior and prestigious posts in the British parliamentary system of government. They are the Prime Minister , the Chancellor Of The Exchequer , the Foreign Secretary 1 and the Home Secretary .2 Since 27 June 2007 , these posts have been held by Gordon Brown , Alistair Darling , David Miliband and Jacqui Smith respectively. According to convention, when the Prime Minister names his or her Cabinet, either after a general election or mid-term reshuffle, the first announced Cabinet ministers will be the Chancellor, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, and usually in that order. and Winston Churchill both served as Chancellor, Prime Minister and Home Secretary while Harold Macmillan and John Major served as Chancellor, Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. Rab Butler and Sir John Simon served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary. Only three women have held any of the Great Offices of State:
Due to the way politics in the United Kingdom is now structured, with the House of Commons retaining most of the power, it is accepted that it is no longer practical for one of the holders of the Great Offices of State to be a member of the House of Lords. The last holders of each position to have been peers were:
Following the Reorganisation Of The Cabinet in 2007 which saw the creation of the Secretary Of State For Justice , gaining some of the powers previously held by the Home Office , it was agreed that future Lord Chancellor s whould be chosen from the Commons for the first time. Jack Straw , the current Justice Secretary, appeared to make reference to the fact that this new post, previously held by Lord Falconer , a member of the House Of Lords , could be considered a fifth Great Office, saying that he was "the first holder of this great office of state to sit in the Commons."4 So far, there is no consensus in favour of such a view among constitutional analysts. REFERENCES |
|
|