Dead or Alive

[chickenfeet]

Gacked from keithlard, an ideal UK Cabinet. I pondered on his mix of available persons sprinkled with a few dead ones and decided it would be fairer to do two versions; the all time ideals and the best available right now cabinets. Added for fun is my "in your worst nightmares" cabinet.


Best Cabinet of All Time

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service
Clem Attlee

Chancellor of the Exchequer
Hugh Gaitskell

Secretary of State for the Home Department
Jo Grimond

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Charles James Fox (Peter Carrington was a very close second)

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Jenny Lee

Secretary of State for Transport
Ernest Bevin

Secretary of State for Health
Aneurin Bevan

Secretary of State for Defence
Lord Fisher of Kilverstone

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women and Equality
Barbara Castle

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Roy Jenkins

Secretary of State for Education and Skills
Harold Wilson

Secretary of State for International Development
Judith Hart

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
William Beveridge

Leader of the House of Commons
Michael Foot

Lord Chancellor
Lord Hailsham



Best of Today's Bunch

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service
Robin Cook

Chancellor of the Exchequer
Gordon Brown

Secretary of State for the Home Department
Chris Mullin

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Peter Hain

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Alan Whitehead

Secretary of State for Transport
Ken Livingstone

Secretary of State for Health
John Denham

Secretary of State for Defence
Mike Gapes

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women and Equality
Fiona MacTaggart

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Tony Banks

Secretary of State for Education and Skills
Patricia Hewitt

Secretary of State for International Development
Hilary Benn

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
John Prescott

Leader of the House of Commons
Ruth Kelly

Lord Chancellor
Paul Boateng



Nightmare on Downing Street

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service
Margaret Thatcher

Chancellor of the Exchequer
Henry Dundas

Secretary of State for the Home Department
The Duke of Wellington

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Neville Chamberlain

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Cecil Rhodes

Secretary of State for Transport
Lord Beecham

Secretary of State for Health
Norman Fowler

Secretary of State for Defence
The Duke of Cambridge

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women and Equality
Keith Joseph

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Dennis Skinner

Secretary of State for Education and Skills
Reg Prentice

Secretary of State for International Development
Leo Amery

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Winston Churchill

Leader of the House of Commons
Alastair Campbell

Lord Chancellor
Cardinal Wolsey

Comments

[atpotch.livejournal.com]

Fun. Though I think Norman Lamont got a let-off.

TCH

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

How about Stephen Fry?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

In which list?

Besides there's no such position as "Valet to the cabinet"

[kaet.livejournal.com]

The worst cabinet made me laugh!

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

I'm surprisingly close on your present-day cabinet, but my ex was a civil servant working for Boateng in HMCE and says he's loathsome beyond belief.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure about Boateng but it's hard to find a suitable lawyer amongst the current crowd. Perhaps we could put Cherie Blair in the Lords and make her LC just to piss Tony off.

It would be easy to create a government out of the PLP who were all stupid and/or loathsome. Jon Trickett or Gerry Steinberg anyone?

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Also, are you allowed Campbell? Not sure he counts as a politician. I could be talked out of this.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I couldn't resist. Think of it as throwing him to the sharks.

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Okay, you talked me into it.

[keithlard.livejournal.com]

Yes, agree with most of those, especially Thatcher.

I see you've moved Ken to Transport - nice touch :D

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

What you said.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I thought Ken was good for transport. It's really hard to come up with a good candidate for Defence in a labour government. It's a pity that Michael West died last year. He would have been perfect. Gapesy was a bit of a joke but then those of us who knew him in his youth...

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

After some more thought and consultation with my father, who's good at this sort of thing:

Resounding yes to Fisher (that's from him; I'd never heard of the guy)

No to Jenkins - he'd only do culture, and not media or sport.

Resounding yes to Robin Cook, from both of us.

Ken Clarke rather than Gordon Brown, after much debate. Brown's values are terrific but he doesn't understand complexity and this is a problem in a chancellor. (Also, I suspect that Clarke and Cook would get on, which would make a nice change.)

No to Peter Hain, from him, for the same reason as my no to Boateng.

Resounding yes to Livingstone (as a Londoner, I'll put a fair sum behind that one) and yes to Kelly.

In response to your final question, we independently decided to bring back Mackay of Clashfern.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Jackie Fisher was First Sea Lord in the run uo to WW1. He was responsible for the building of HMS Dreadnought and many reforms in naval gunnery. I picked him because he was radical and completely unafraid to challenge the status quo while being professionally sound. It's a rare combination. defence ministers are usually either starry eyed fans of the worst aspects of military or clueless.

I've not found Hain to be personally loathesome but I knew him a long time ago.

MacKay is probably a good choice.

I think if one had a candidate who really understood complexity I'd give him Health.

One wild card, if I could go outside the PLP I'd give education to paul Gray, the Education Director for Surrey. He'ld be awesome.

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

You're a mathmo. How do you know so much history?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I'm a polymath!

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

You haven't answered my questions in your poll, though.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

That's because i hadn't seen them. I'll get right to it.

Slightly more serious reply...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I had two passions at school; math and history. The british ecucation system doesn't provide too many ways of combining those post 'O' level. I figured I could study history on my own for the rest of my life w/o too much trouble but that i needed the formal education to get where I wanted with the math. Also the employment prospects looked brighter going the math route. So, having won the fifth form history prize at school, I dropped it to do Pure Maths, Applied Maths and Physics at 'A' level and subsequently a Math degree. I don't think the head of history at school ever forgave me. I did manage to win the sixth form maths prize which probably makes me the only one to win 5th history and 6th maths!

Now there are probably about two bookcases worth of history books in the apartment and the last trip to our good second hand bookstore yielded a social history of the Foreign Legion, a book of essays on sexuality in French history and a Festschrift</> for EP Thompson.

Re: Slightly more serious reply...

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm impressed now.

I had to choose between maths and classics, and ended up going for maths on the grounds that I was more likely to be able to get a decent degree without doing any work. It turned out to be the right answer for similar reasons - I can pretty much do what I need to do in classical languages (i.e., translate inscriptions in churches). Also, if I wanted to do more, it's much easier to do classes in Latin or Greek than in university-level maths.

But I suck at history. Envious.

Re: Slightly more serious reply...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I have no particular facility for languages. I speak and read French sorta kinda OK but that's mostly from living in a partially french environment for so long (ie watching the France/Wales game on TV5 this morning). My German and Latin are rusty beyond belief though I have 'O' levels in both.

Re: Slightly more serious reply...

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Okay, I feel better now.

I found Latin the most helpful subject I ever studied, mostly because it taught me grammar, but also because it has meant that I can pick up any romance language within a few weeks.

I'm not great at any applied science, or any sport, or driving, or anything that requires long periods of concentration. But my language skills are pretty good.

Takes all sorts.