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UK Cabinet Reshuffle, May 2006
Following poor results for the Labour Party in the local elections in England on 4 May 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair held a cabinet reshuffle the following day. Changes Secretary of State for the Home Department John Reid moved from Defence to become the new Home Secretary, following Blair's decision to remove Charles Clarke from the position. Clarke refused the offer of other Cabinet positions and returned to the back benches. This was John Reid's ninth cabinet position in nine years. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Margaret Beckett, previously Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, was promoted to become Britain's first ever female Foreign Secretary, replacing Jack Straw. Straw had held the prominent position from 2001 and was heavily involved in the War on terror. Straw's departure from his role as Foreign Secretary had not been widely predicted, but the move apparently came at his own request for a change following nearl ...
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Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The Labour Party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. In all general elections since 1922, Labour has been either the governing party or the Official Opposition. There have been six Labour prime ministers and thirteen Labour ministries. The party holds the annual Labour Party Conference, at which party policy is formulated. The party was founded in 1900, having grown out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the 19th century. It overtook the Liberal Party to become the main opposition to the Conservative Party in the early 1920s, forming two minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in the 1920s and early 1930s. Labour served in the wartime coalition of 1940–1945, after which Clement Attlee's Labour government established the National Health Service and expanded the welfa ...
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Political Party Funding
Political Party Funding (PPF) is a method used by a political party to raise money for campaigns and routine activities. The funding of political parties is an aspect of campaign finance. Political parties are funded by contributions from multiple sources. One of the largest sources of funding comes from party members and individual supporters through membership fees, subscriptions and small donations. This type of funding is often referred to as grassroots funding or support. Solicitation of larger donations from wealthy individuals, often referred to as plutocratic funding, is also a common method of securing funds. Parties can also be funded by organizations that share their political views, such as unions, political action committees, or organizations that seek to benefit from the party's policies. In certain locales, taxpayer money may be given to a party by the federal government. This is accomplished through state aid grants, government, or public funding. Additionally, p ...
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Secretary Of State For Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office holder works alongside the other transport ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for transport, and the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the Transport Select Committee. History The Ministry of Transport absorbed the Ministry of Shipping and was renamed the Ministry of War Transport in 1941, but resumed its previous name at the end of the war. The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created by Winston Churchill in 1944 to look at peaceful ways of using aircraft and to find something for the aircraft factories to do after the war. The new Conservative government in 1951 appointed the same minister to both Transport and Civil Aviati ...
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Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (born 28 November 1953) is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1987 until he stepped down in 2015, most recently for Edinburgh South West. Darling was first appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1997, and was promoted to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 1998. After spending four years at that department, he spent a further four years as Secretary of State for Transport, while also becoming Secretary of State for Scotland in 2003. Blair moved Darling for a final time in 2006, making him President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, before new Prime Minister Gordon Brown promoted Darling to replace himself as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2007, a position he remained in until 2010. He served as ...
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Secretary Of State For Constitutional Affairs
The secretary of state for constitutional affairs was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The position existed from 2003 to 2007. At its creation, certain functions of the lord chancellor which related to the Lord Chancellor's Department were transferred to the new secretary of state. At a later date further functions were also transferred to the secretary of state for constitutional affairs from the first secretary of state, a position within the government held by the deputy prime minister. The only holder of the post was Lord Falconer who also simultaneously continued to serve as Lord Chancellor. Certain functions, linked by statute with the office of Lord Chancellor, were not transferred to the new office of secretary of state for constitutional affairs. The corresponding shadow minister was the shadow secretary of state for constitutional affairs, and the s ...
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Reform Of The House Of Lords
Certain governments in the United Kingdom have, for more than a century, attempted to find a way to reform the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This process was started by the Parliament Act 1911 introduced by the then Liberal Government which stated: ...whereas it is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a Second Chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation When the Labour Party came to power in the 1997 general election, it had in its manifesto the promise to reform the House of Lords: The House of Lords must be reformed. As an initial, self-contained reform, not dependent on further reform in the future, the right of hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords will be ended by statute... The Blair government subsequently passed the House of Lords Act 1999. On 7 November 2001 the government undertook a p ...
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Minister Of State For Europe
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Europe, formerly the Minister of State for Europe is a ministerial position within the Government of the United Kingdom, in charge of affairs with Europe. The Minister can also be responsible for government policy towards European security; defence and international security; the Falkland Islands; polar regions; migration; protocol; human resources; OSCE and Council of Europe; relations with Parliament; British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus; and FCO finance, knowledge and technology. History The office currently a Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Despite being a junior ministerial role, the position has sometimes conferred the right to attend meetings of the Cabinet, which is occasionally granted to other such ministers at the Prime Minister's discretion. This first occurred when Denis MacShane was replaced by Douglas Alexander after the 2005 general electio ...
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Geoff Hoon
Geoffrey William Hoon (born 6 December 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire from 1992 to 2010. He is a former Defence Secretary, Transport Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Government Chief Whip. He had previously been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Derbyshire from 1984 to 1994. Early life Hoon was born in Derby, England, and is the son of railwayman Ernest Hoon and June Collett. He was educated at Nottingham High School, an independent school. He then read law at Jesus College, Cambridge from which he graduated in 1976. He was a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Leeds from 1976 to 1982 and was a sub-warden at Devonshire Hall. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1978, and was also a visiting Law Professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, from 1979 to 1980. In 1982, Hoon became a practising barrister in Nottingham. Member of Parliamen ...
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Sinecure
A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is an office, carrying a salary or otherwise generating income, that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, where it signified a post without any responsibility for the " cure areof souls", the regular liturgical and pastoral functions of a cleric, but came to be applied to any post, secular or ecclesiastical, that involved little or no actual work. Sinecures have historically provided a potent tool for governments or monarchs to distribute patronage, while recipients are able to store up titles and easy salaries. A sinecure can also be given to an individual whose primary job is in another office, but requires a sinecure title to perform that job. For example, the Government House Leader in Canada is often given a sinecure ministry position so that they may become a member of the Cabinet. Similar examples are the Lord Keeper of the Privy ...
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Secretary Of State For Communities And Local Government
The secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, also referred to as the levelling up secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office holder works alongside the other ministers in the Department. The corresponding shadow minister is the Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The position is currently held by Michael Gove since 25 October 2022, having previously held the position from September 2021 to July 2022 under Boris Johnson before being dismissed and eventually being reappointed by Rishi Sunak in October 2022. History This department was created in 2006 by then British prime minister Tony Blair to replace John Prescott's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which had taken on the local govern ...
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Ruth Kelly
Ruth Maria Kelly (born 9 May 1968) is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton West from 1997 until she stood down in 2010. Previously, she served as the Secretary of State for Transport, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Minister for Women and Equality and Secretary of State for Education and Skills, serving under both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. Background Kelly was born in Limavady, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She also lived briefly in the Republic of Ireland before moving to England where she attended Edgarley Hall, the preparatory school for Millfield School. She was educated at the independent Sutton High School, run by the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST). After being moved up a year and sitting O-levels at Sutton High School at the age of 15, she decided to move back to Ireland to look after her ill grandmother. Her grandmother died after six weeks, but Kelly stayed for a year, liv ...
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Office Of The Deputy Prime Minister
An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it (see officer, office-holder, official); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the term "office" may refer to business-related tasks. In law, a company or organization has offices in any place where it has an official presence, even if that presence consists of (for example) a storage silo rather than an establishment with desk-and-chair. An office is also an architectural and design phenomenon: ranging from a small office such as a bench in the corner of a small business of extremely small size (see small office/home office), through entire floors of buildings, up to and including massive buildings dedicated entirely to one c ...
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