The other day I predicted that Gordon 'Clunky Fist' Brown's first cabinet would consist of 'former trade unionists, public sector workers, lawyers, and psuedo-charity workers'. So how has my prediction panned out? Pretty well except for the fact that I forgot to consider those who had no career at all before politics. This is the current cabinet & those who can attend cabinet meetings:
Prime Minister: Gordon Brown
Chancellor: Alistair Darling
Home Secretary: Jacqui Smith
Foreign Secretary: David Miliband
Education: Ed Balls
Higher Education: John Denham
Health: Alan Johnson
Transport: Ruth Kelly
Trade & Industry: John Hutton
Attorney General: Baroness Scotland
Communities: Hazel Blears
Chairman of the Labour Party: Harriet Harman
Chief Whip: Geoff Hoon
Environment: Hilary Benn
Justice: Jack Straw
Work & Pensions & Wales: Peter Hain
Leader of the House of Commons: Harriet Harman
DCMS: James Purnell
Northern Ireland: Shaun Woodward
Leader of the Lords: Baroness Ashton
International Development: Douglas Alexander
Defence: Des Browne
Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Andy Burnham
Social Exclusion & Cabinet Office: Ed Miliband
Lords Whip: Lord Grocott
Olympics: Tessa Jowell
Housing: Yvette Cooper
These are the areas they worked prior to entering politics, there are some overlaps and some of the lawyers worked for public sector employers or pseudo charities. Note Pseudo charities refers to those organisations which are either heavily funded by the taxpayer or exist to promote a specific political agenda:
Public Sector:
Gordon Brown (College Lecturer)
Alastair Darling ( Board of Napier college)
Jacqui Smith (Teacher)
John Hutton (College lecturer)
Alan Johnson (Postman)
Ruth Kelly (Bank of England)
Geoff Hoon (College lecturer) *
Tessa Jowell (Social Worker)
Baroness Scotland (Commission for Racial Equality)
Lord Grocott (Polytechnic Lecturer)
Trade Unionists:
Alan Johnson (Communication Workers Union)
Hilary Benn ( Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs)
Peter Hain (Communication Workers Union)
Jack Straw (National Union of Students)
Lawyers:
Alastair Darling
Des Browne
Jack Straw
Harriet Harman
Hazel Blears
Baroness Scotland
Pseudo Charity:
John Denham (War on Want, Oxfam, Christian Aid, British Council)
Harriet Harmen (National Council for Civil Liberties)
Ed Balls (Smith Institute)
Baroness Ashton (Various)
Tessa Jowell (MIND)
David Miliband (National Council for Voluntary Organisations)
Shaun Woodward
No Known Career Before Politics:
Douglas Alexander
Ed Miliband
James Purnell
Andy Burnham
Yvette Cooper (Although she later did a stint in journalism)
Journalism:
Gordon Brown (Scottish Television)
Ed Balls (Financial Times)
Ruth Kelly (Financial Times)
Yvette Cooper (Independent)
Shaun Woodward
Lord Grocott (TV)
Private Sector, other than Law & Journalism:
?
Incidentally I don't regard most of these professions as intrinsically awful, but a touch f diversity in previous jobs wouldn't go amiss. Most of the population work in the private sector and have to respond to what their customers want, wheras there is not a single person in the cabinet who has experienced that!.
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5 comments:
Fascinating and highly useful. This is a pretty damning list.
Thanks
englandism.com
Many thanks for that list (and hat tip to Guido for putting this in my way)
This is very insightful and explains alot. I am quite sure if someone was in Cabinet who had or still did run their own business, they would stand out like a sore thumb and reject much of what is happening.
These people are just part of the machine - they cannot be considered "of the people, by the people, for the people".
What is most depressing about the list is that it could more or less be predicted beforehand.
Alexander was a year out of Law School and had just completed his trainee-ship when the call to serve the Party came.
According to Wikipedia Douglas Alexander worked on the Michael Dukakis campaign, which is why I put him down as having no career before politics, but I suppose that was probably just as a volunteer.
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