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Originally Posted by Damien
Not a massive point of interest but still noteworthy.
Starmer has appointed two non-MPs to the cabinet. Sir Patrick Valance of COVID fame is the Science Minister. Fair enough.
But probably bigger news. James Timpson of Timpson - the key cutters company - has been made Prisons Minister!
Both are being appointed to the Lords to be able to do this.
I quite like this decision. Timpson recruits out of prisons quite a bit and I saw an interview with him on Channel 4 a few months ago where he had an excellent understanding of it.
Putting people who understand the topic as Ministers makes sense to me. For balance, I said the same about making Cameron Foreign Secretary.
We should make the cabinet more qualified like the Americans do rather than try to find someone from the 99% of MPs who are humanities graduates to be the Minister for Science or whatever.
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I’m not necessarily
against the concept however there could be better ways of Governments getting expertise into the decision making process without elevating more people to the Lords.
A risk, in an unscrupulous era, would be giving these “experts” political accountability at the same time sets them up as fall guys. Or worse, “expert” advice gets designed to curry favour with a ruling party.
In Scotland there’s a tendency towards “expert groups” or “advisory groups” of publicly funded third sector orgs representing “lived experience”. A cynic may, occasionally, view this as a shield for political parties to dodge political accountability.
If Lords get appointed to junior positions they subsequently resign from due to incompetence or error (as opposed to personal scandal) the buck should really stop with the corresponding Secretary of State.
In a sense I have less opposition to Cameron as foreign secretary, as a clear and unambiguous political operative. If we oppose Ministers being in the Lords we shouldn’t have a House of Lords.
Note - “Experts” follows my hypothetical dive into an unscrupulous era. Not a judgement on the expertise of either Vallance or Timpson.