The Privy Council (members without other titles gain the prefix 'Rt Hon') is one of the many historic but still faintly functional parts of our constitution.
Excluding those people who have to be, or by convention are, made a member of the Privy Council (Cabinet members, senior Legal and Church appointments, opposition party leaders and the odd other senior opposition member, 'Speakers' of the various legislatures etc), Brown's record of creating members of the Council far outstrips that of his predecessor (which in turn exceeded that of his predecessor as Labour members appear to prefer 'Rt Hon' to 'Sir' in front of their names).
In Brown's (just under) 2 years, 13 MPs have been created a member of the PC without reaching Cabinet. For some of them it appears to have been a post-sacking making up (Ryan, Morley, McGuire for example). For others, maybe those who've hung around just outside the Cabinet for some time, compensation for not even making it to the phalanx of ministers 'invited' or 'entitled' to attend Cabinet.
By contrast, in Blairs (just over) 10 years, 39 MPs were made members, 3 times as many in 5 times as long. A fair few of these were in advance of being promoted to Cabinet (none of Browns 13 have yet), though the remainder were also post sacking making up, or recongition to long serving ministers of state that they were never going to quite make it to Cabinet.
Does any of this matter? Well, in one sense, no. The day-to-day work of the PC is done by the Lord President (usually Leader of the Commons or Lords, now parts of Lord Mandelsons bauble-set) and most members do little. The concept of discussions on 'Privy Council' terms may matter (hence some of the opposition members appointments) but there are any number of examples of being taken into confidence without the honorific title.
So, for the most part, it seems to have become just another part of the Prime Ministerial patronage machine.
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Well, another 4 announced today. Takes Brown's total in 2 years to 17 - almost half Blair's total in just a fifth of the time.
ReplyDeleteAnd a further batch announced, this time all from the House of Lords, and including the chief whips of the opposition parties, and the convenor of the cross-benchers; but the remaining four of them are Labour peers (3 junior ministers and a deputy speaker).
ReplyDeleteSo that's 21 Labour members of the PC created by Brown in just two years, outside of those required by convention. It just seems such a strange thing to be doing, unless its about rewards before an election loss; or creating plenty of Labour members who then have precedent in speaking in the Commons (traditionally, Rt Hon and more ikely to be called than simply Hon members).