Saturday 19 July 2008

The present government. By vocation...





Below are the current UK cabinet members listed against their "employment" before they were elected to parliament.



Prime minister – Gordon Brown: Professional student. Lecturer. 3 years at Scottish Television.

Home secretary - Jacqui Smith: Teacher

Foreign secretary - David Miliband: Voluntary sector bureaucrat. Labour policy wonk.

Chancellor of the Exchequer - Alistair Darling: Lawyer

Justice secretary and Lord Chancellor - Jack Straw: Lawyer (3 years), Inner London Education Authority. Labour policy wonk.

Health secretary - Alan Johnson: Postman. Trades unionist.

Defence secretary - Des Browne: Lawyer.

Secretary for business, enterprise and regulatory reform - John Hutton: College lecturer.

Secretary for children, schools and families - Ed Balls: 4 years as leader writer for Financial Times. Labour policy wonk.

Secretary for innovation, universities and skills - John Denham: Quangos and charities.

Environment secretary - Hilary Benn: Trades unionist. Councillor.

International development secretary - Douglas Alexander: Professional student. Policy wonk. Lawyer.

Work and pensions secretary - Peter Hain: Trades unionist. “Anti” campaigner.

Transport secretary - Ruth Kelly: Guardian journalist. Labour policy wonk.

Secretary for communities and local government - Hazel Blears: Public sector lawyer. Trades unionist.

Culture, media and sport secretary - James Purnell: Labour policy wonk. BBC.

Northern Ireland secretary - Shaun Woodward: Lobbyist. BBC. Tory turncoat.

Chief whip - Geoff Hoon: Labourer. Lawyer. Lecturer.

Secretary for the cabinet office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - Ed Miliband: Labour policy wonk.

Chief secretary to the Treasury - Andy Burnham: Labour policy wonk. Trades unionist.



Not an engineer or farmer or businessman between them. Geoff Hoon laboured at a furniture factory for a year and Brown the Clown was a journo for Jock TV for three years. One or two more had short stints as journos. Outside of Law, very little private sector experience at all. We are governed by policy wonks and trades unionists with little or no experience of the real world.
Any refutations gratefully received (Wiki was used extensively in compiling the above). I might do a similar list of the shadow cabinet....if I can be bothered. I'd be interested to know how many of our 650 MPs are lawyers

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.

Ladyhihi said...

Below are the current UK cabinet members listed against their "employment" before they were elected to parliament.



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