British Politics Thread

(Though probably a page topper)

I get the fact that this does have May's fingerprints all over it. But realistically no Prime Minister (and least of all May) is going to offer their own resignation to solve a political crisis - if it got that bad I would expect the entire government to fall not just the PM.

So on the basis that this scandal will not cause the government to fall, May is going nowhere. So there has to be a consequence, and that could be Rudd as a proxy.

Though I kind of think Silasw has it right. There isn't going to be a policy shift, meaning that it is now incumbent on Labour to run on this in the local elections and beyond to see if we can finally end this hostile immigration policy (which is as much down to our favourite fish and chips wrapper as it is the Home Office)

The Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, died four days ago aged 77.
The Lord Hutton, former Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, retired from Parliament today aged 86.

The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a boy at 11:01 am, weighing 8lb 7oz. We'll be unlikely to get a name for a couple of days, maybe on Wednesday.

Had to check who the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are. For others like me, the boy is the 3rd child of William and Kate, so 5th in line for the throne (after his grandfather, father, brother and sister).

Actual link for the Daily Mail shenanigans I mentioned on the last page.

Also apparently there's now calls for a new Section 28.

I don't think that a group of transphobes on an insular forum count as calls.

When they have the backing of a Cabinet Minister?

Reading the article, she's only defending the site itself. Not agreeing with any of their positions. Given it seems to have become (openly) overrun by TERFs quite recently, she might not agree with them.

...and if she does, it's unlikely she'll be in the cabinet for much longer. All of the major parties support trans rights, even the Tories.

Scottish Conservative Leader Ruth Davidson has announced that she is pregnant

Good for her. Out of interest, has there been another UK politician who has had a baby while in a high ranked position within their party or government because I can't think of one?

I suppose define high rank? Yvette Cooper took maternity leave in 2001, but she was 'only' the Public Health Minister at the time so perhaps not high rank. I don't think for example it has happened for any of the great offices of state.

Come to think of it, I don't think all of the great offices even have had female leaders. PM yes, Home Office yes, Foreign Secretary yes but Chancellor and Defence no?

Defence isn’t great office, its just the big four, PM, Chancelor, Foreign and Home.

But yeah I can’t think of a female foreign or a female chancelor.

I had to look it up to be fair - Margaret Beckett was Foreign Secretary once upon a time.

Technically speaking, quite a few of the lads in office over the years have had their wives have kids while they were in office.

Including kings and princes (and they certainly once had active roles in government). Heck, having sprogs has a governmental role, still (even if the the House of Lords is no longer, you know... mostly made up of landed gentry). And, Queen Victoria had all of her children as a governing Queen, on top. So...

And Elizabeth had two of her children after she was crowned.

Well, we'll ignore the fact that - as highly public jobs go - it's hard for any woman to beat the Queen, who gave birth to two of her four children after becoming queen.

Yes, female MPs have been known to bring their babies into the Commons (building). It's a thing. There was even a baby present in the Commons for the vote on activating Article 50 (Chloe Smith (Conservative MP) brought her infant in so she could vote).

In fact, it's such a thing that we have the Betty Boothroyd Test. In 2001, the Commons Speaker (Betty Boothroyd) banned breastfeeding in the Commons debating chamber and in Commons' committee meetings, declaring that it would only be suitable for such a thing to be allowed on the day a supermarket cashier can breastfeed her baby while checking out a customer's shopping. Breastfeeding is allowed everywhere else in the building, just not in the main chamber (which includes the public galleries) or committee rooms.

Yes, that is as controversial as it sounds. But, in fairness to Betty Boothroyd, her decision wasn't as completely old-fashioned it may appear. Part of her point was that the debating chamber gets so rowdy it's not really going to be fair on the baby either.

Despite the fact that children are therefore not allowed in the debating chamber, children have been taken into the division lobby. The most high profile politician I can think of who breastfed in the division lobby is Harriet Harman (back in the 80s).

More recently, the Conservative backbencher, Chloe Smith, took her baby into the debating chamber (with permission) so that she could vote on the activation of Article 50. She did not breastfeed, however.

The current Speaker (John Bercow) wants the Betty Boothroyd Test overturned. Reports have been commissioned since 2016 to recommend the rule be lifted and breastfeeding permitted in the debating chamber. However, the current quest to achieve this is running into opposition from some MPs. As a result, it's an ongoing issue.

No, there has been no female Chancellor. In fact, towards the end of Margaret Thatcher's tenure, I remember a discussion that some news hosts were having with some political historians. The following is the gist of what the political historians and pundits were saying:

It will actually be a more significant breakthrough for women to see a female Chancellor than to see a female prime minister because of the popular belief among men of a certain age that women should never be trusted with the purse strings (the Chancellorship is viewed as the ultimate purse string). Under Margaret Thatcher, there was a certain view that, since men controlled the purse strings (i.e., male Chancellors), it was okay for a woman to be prime minister.

Seriously.

edited 26th Apr '18 3:13:16 PM by Wyldchyld

Well I did specify party or government specifically to discount the Queen

Thanks for the info everyone anyway. I do wonder how long it will be until we get a situation like in New Zealand where the Prime Minister announced that she was pregnant.

The new baby has been confirmed as His Royal Highness Prince Louis Arthur Charles of Cambridge.

Well, we've only had two female prime ministers, neither of whom were in a position to get pregnant while in post (Thatcher was 54 when she became PM; May has no children).

The most recent study I'm aware of indicated that, of the MPs at the time of the study, 28% of men were childless and 45% of women were childless.

So, we'll have to wait for a woman who is young enough for it to be likely that she could get pregnant and for her circumstances to allow her the opportunity to do so.

I think we'll be waiting a while.

How old was the youngest PM so far?

William Pitt the Younger at 24

Though he was unlikely to make anyone pregnant.

It's worth bearing in mind that it's also rare for a man to father a child while currently serving as prime minister. Although both Tony Blair and David Cameron had children while serving as prime ministers, Tony Blair was the first man in 150 years to have a child while serving as prime minister.

Well, a legitimate child. David Lloyd George really got around.

He didn't officially have any children when he was prime minister and the two cases that are popularly considered the most likely illegitimate children were not born while he was prime minister.