Archive for the 'Shadow Cabinet' Category

Part-time Shadow Cabinet

Add a comment
November 3rd, 2008 by ThunderDragon

shadow-cabinetShould the members of the Shadow Cabinet have outside interests? David Cameron is reportedly planning to stop them from doing so.

Is this a good idea? Yes in some ways, and no in others.

Reasons for:

  • A “full-time” Shadow Cabinet members should be more effective in fighting the party’s corner;
  • They would have more time to immerse themselves in their area and for developing policy;
  • It would show that the Conservatives are ready for government; and
  • Remove any potential conflicts of interest.

Reasons against:

  • It could potentially cost them a lot of money;
  • It would remove an arena of contacts which could be used the benefit the party in various ways;
  • There is still likely to be a year or more before a general election is held.

I think that in the end, banning Shadow Cabinet members from having external appointments so far ahead of a general election would be a counter-productive move. However, a thinning out of the numbers of appointments would be a good thing.

Rather than banning them, making them subject to approval would be a better course of action - based on the amount of time they take, the potential for a conflict of interest to arise with regards to a Shadow Cabinet member’s portfolio, as well as more personal contexts. Alongide an understanding that by six months before a general election is expected, all outside appointments are dropped.

After all, if they want to be in the Shadow Cabinet and the likelihood of the Cabinet, then they need to be prepared to put the effort in.

Conservative Party, Shadow Cabinet

North-South Divide

2 Comments
October 11th, 2007 by ThunderDragon

The Sun points out that just two out of 21 Cabinet ministers have constituencies south of Watford - the most heavily populated part of Britain. Double that number of Cabinet Ministers represent Scottish constituencies, whose population is less than that of London. The excessive Northern bias of Labour’s Cabinet is unacceptable.

To be fair, as Kerron Cross points out, there are only nine Shadow Cabinet members north of Watford. But since this far greater reflects the population distribution of Britain - and nine is significantly greater than two in anyone’s money. There may be a Southern bias in the Shadow Cabinet - but there is also a Southern bias in the country demographically.

Of course there should probably be more of an equal distribution of all front-bench teams, but you can either have a fully equal representation or those who are [at least supposedly] the best/most talented of the MPs of that party. You can’t have both.

But Labour does have an excessive Northern bias in it’s Cabinet. No-one can deny that fact. That the Tories have a slight Southern bias - far more in line with the country - is hardly much of a problem, certainly in comparison.

Source: The Sun

Cabinet, Politics, Shadow Cabinet