A Smoking Club

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Whig Party ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
Richard Brinsley Sheridan ◽  
Speaker Of The House

The smokers in this caricature of 1793 are: (from left to right) Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (1757-1844), speaker of the House of Commons; William Pitt (1759-1806), Tory Prime Minister; Charles James Fox (1749-1806), leader of the Whig party; Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742-1811), secretary of state; Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), dramatist and Whig orator. That the protagonists are blowing smoke into each others’ faces which is indicative of their hostility in debate. The caricature was published twelve days after France had declared war on Britain—a war that would last, with an interlude for the Treaty of Amiens, until 1815.

Calling Mr Speaker ‘Mr Speaker’

Pragmatics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bull ◽  
Anita Fetzer ◽  
Dániel Z. Kádár
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Conflict Avoidance ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Normative Expectation ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Face Threats ◽  
Speaker Of The House ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the UK House of Commons is a ritual event, governed by a cluster of conventions. Members of Parliament (MPs) must address their remarks to the Prime Minister (PM) through the medium of the Speaker of the House, who is responsible for maintaining order during debates, and determining which MP may speak next. Due to the sacred role of the Speaker and the prevalence of conventionalised conflict avoidance between the PM and those who ask challenging questions, PMQs resembles archaic tribal councils, in which rights and obligations prevail. Yet, the importance of conventionalised indirectness and the sacred role of the Speaker do not correlate with a lack of face-threats and challenges. PMQs represents an aggressive ritual setting in which the ritual roles and rules only offer a façade to package aggression, and indeed may operate as interactional resources whereby participants can even increase the efficiency of their verbal attacks. Thus, PMQs embodies a scene that ritual experts define as ‘anti-structural’ in character: in this setting, the normative expectation in daily life to avoid conflict is temporarily suspended, to such an extent that conflict has become the ritual norm and is regarded as quintessential to this parliamentary institution.

The Arthur Crawford Scandal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Metelits
Keyword(s):  
Retirement Age ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Government Service ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
High Court ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Government ◽  
To Receive

The Arthur Crawford Scandal explores how nineteenth century Bombay tried a British official for corruption. The presidency government persuaded Indians, government officials, to testify against the very person who controlled their career by offering immunity from legal action and career punishment. A criminal conviction of Crawford’s henchman established the modus operandi of a bribery network. Subsequent efforts to intimidate Indian witnesses led to litigation at the high court level, resulting in a political pressure campaign in London based on biased press reports from India. These reports evoked questions in the House of Commons; questions became demands that Indians witnesses against Crawford be fired from government service. The secretary of state for India and the Bombay government negotiated about the fate of the Indian witnesses. At first, the secretary of state accepted the Bombay government’s proposals. But the press campaign against the Indian witnesses eventually led him to order the Government of India, in consultation with the Government of Bombay, to pass a law ordering those officials who paid Crawford willingly, to be fired. Those whom the Bombay government determined to be extorted were not to be fired. Both groups retained immunity from further actions at law. Thus, Bombay won a victory that almost saved its original guarantee of immunity: those who were fired were to receive their salary (along with periodic step increases) until they reached retirement age, at which time they would receive a pension. However, this ‘solution’ did little to overcome the stigma and suffering of the fired officials.

Office of the Vice President

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 111-111
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
The United Nations

Vice President Mondale has been participating extensively in Africa-related foreign policy matters since taking office in January, 1977. The Vice President works closely with Secretary of State Vance and Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young in the development of Africa-related policy recommendations for consideration by the President. The Vice President also participates in meetings with visiting African leaders and monitors political developments in Africa. Finally, at the President’s request, Vice President Mondale met with Prime Minister Vorster of South Africa to explain the new Administration’s policies toward southern Africa. Information on the Vice President’s staff’s involvement in Africa-related matters was requested but not received.

scholarly journals 'A Very Modern Kind of English Loneliness': John Redwood, the Welsh Office and Devolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 624-651
Author(s):  
Leon Gooberman
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
The Other ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Secretary Of State

John Redwood was appointed Secretary of State for Wales in 1993. He pursued a radical right- wing agenda for two turbulent years before resigning to unsuccessfully challenge John Major for the premiership. This article examines this period to make two arguments. One is that Redwood's imposition of a morally-charged Thatcherite agenda challenged and inadvertently discredited the Conservatives and the institutions through which they governed. This loss of credibility then enabled his opponents to magnify pre-existing discontent and secure a narrow victory in the 1997 devolution referendum. The other argument is that Redwood's period in Wales demonstrates the counterproductive potential of ideological dedication. His plan to overthrow the prime minister failed, he damaged his party and he helped facilitate devolution, outcomes that were the opposite of his intentions.

Interview with Janez Lenarčič

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
International Law ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
Treaty Negotiations ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
State Position ◽  
Council Presidency

Janez Lenarčič is currently serving as Commissioner for Crisis Management in the European Commission, a mandate he took up in December 2019. In this capacity, he is responsible for EU civil protection as well as humanitarian aid. Mr Lenarčič served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the European Union (EU) in Brussels from 2016 to 2019. From 2014 to 2016, he held the Secretary of State position in the cabinet of the Slovenian Prime Minister. His previous experience also includes the position of Director of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, in Warsaw, from 2008 to 2014. He has also served as Secretary of State for European Affairs, including representing Slovenia during the Lisbon Treaty negotiations in 2007 and later representing the Slovenian EU Council Presidency to the European Parliament in 2008. In 2002 and 2003 he held the position of State Secretary in the cabinet of the Slovenian Prime Minister, after which he served as Slovenian Ambassador to the OSCE. In 2005, he was also Chairman of the Permanent Council of the OSCE in Vienna. In 2000 he served as Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the following year he became the Diplomatic Adviser to the then Slovenian Prime Minister. Between 1994 and 1999 he was posted to Slovenia's Permanent Representation to the United Nations (UN) in New York, where he also served as the alternate representative of Slovenia on the UN Security Council. Mr Lenarčič holds a degree in international law from Ljubljana University.

Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-213
Author(s):  
Christopher Cochrane ◽  
Jean-François Godbout ◽  
Jason Vandenbeukel
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Independent Effect ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Lower House ◽  
The Government

Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy with a bicameral legislature at the national level. Members of the upper House, styled the Senate, are appointed by the prime minister, and members of the lower House, the House of Commons, are elected in single-member plurality electoral districts. In practice, the House of Commons is by far the more important of the two chambers. This chapter, therefore, investigates access to the floor in the Canadian House of Commons. We find that the age, gender, and experience of MPs have little independent effect on access to the floor. Consistent with the dominant role of parties in Canadian political life, we find that an MP’s role within a party has by far the most significant impact on their access to the floor. Intriguingly, backbenchers in the government party have the least access of all.

The Mamlatdar Issue Exported

2020 ◽  
pp. 92-122
Author(s):  
Michael D. Metelits
Keyword(s):  
House Of Commons ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
Thing In Itself ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Times ◽  
Considerable Pressure

Chapter 5 traces the process by which purportedly criminal issues became political issues. The chapter therefore deals with the mechanics of mounting a successful political pressure campaign. The chapter examines the export through the slanted reporting to London by The Times of London correspondent in India. His negative opinions about the mamlatdar witnesses fed on the Bombay High Court’s efforts to get the mamlatdars fired. The ‘mamlatdar issue’ eventually came before the House of Commons and that in turn placed considerable pressure on the secretary of state for India to ‘do something’ about the mamlatdars who had confessed under oath that they had paid bribes. In fact, the ‘mamlatdar issue’ had become a thing in itself, a problem that vexed the government at all levels.

The Mystery of Lord Haldane and Early British Military Aviation

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Gollin
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
The State ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
The South ◽  
Major Step ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
British Military ◽  
Military Aviation

In December 1905 R.B. Haldane, later Viscount Haldane of Cloan, became Secretary of State for War. Among his fellow politicians Haldane, at this time, was looked on as an intriguer who combined habitual meddling in high places with a curious and remarkable interest in German philosophy. The Prime Minister of the day, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who had good reason to dislike Haldane, nicknamed him “Schopenhauer.” Both men knew that the War Office had ruined the reputations of several of Haldane's predecessors. “We shall now see,” remarked Campbell-Bannerman, in a phrase that later became famous, “how Schopenhauer gets on in the Kailyard.” Despite this unpromising start Haldane's military reforms were so successful that they established his reputation in history as one of the great servants of the state in the pre-1914 era. His work and accomplishments in the field of military aviation, however, have been criticized very severely. In fact, the matter is so complicated that one aviation authority has written of the record in this area that “Haldane's actions behind the scenes may never be known with certainty.”Even some of his closest subordinates in the field of military aeronautics were very critical of Haldane's attitude and outlook. In February 1911 a major step was taken when, by an Army Order, a unit known as the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers was created. This Battalion was entrusted with the duty of training a “body of expert airmen.” The Battalion's first commander was Major Sir Alexander Bannerman, an officer who knew little about airplanes, but was instead a balloon expert with experience in the South African and Russo-Japanese wars.

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