Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

David Cameron back in the UK Government as Foreign Secretary. A lot of things that are interesting here, firstly an unelected member of an unelected house was sworn in this morning to take the post. Not only was he not elected, same as Lord Frost before, but he is a staunch Remainer but his appointment is being welcomed in the EU,

So the ERG has lost one of their members in one of the high offices and in comes David Cameron to smooth things over with the EU. This will most likely help with the relationship with the EU, but not with the inner fighting in the Conservative Party.

And so the process to (re)join the EU commences.

Section 1 on the Application Form: Preparation for joining the Euro. Comedy gold.

Radio silence from JRG, Francoise, Leadsom, Gove, Frost and all the other leading Brexiters.

Yeah it would require a leap of the imagination to think an english aristocrat (or near one) of the conservative tradition would be in any way pro european. About as likely as finding a unicorn.

No. I'm not suggesting the UK has applied for membership. I said the process commences, more in jest than anything else.

But as the saying goes, manys a true word was spoken in jest...

Sunak is one of the biggest Brexiters in parliament. He is actually one of the very true Brexiters who has always believed unlike yoyos like Johnson, Cameron and Truss.

He has also held these views for a very long time. So the hardline are still "having their turn"

Up to two members of the Seanad are allowed to be ministers - this can include Taoiseach's nominees so not elected at all.

Don't have to go that far back for an example here. Right now Pippa Hackett serves at cabinet despite not being elected to the Dáil but is a member of the Seanad

Thanks Serfboard I was trying to remember who it was but was certain it'd happened here with a full minister on at least one occasion.

Originally, it referred to a member of the senior grades of the civil service in imperial China. (It's not a Chinese word, though; apparently it was the Portuguese who first used it to refer to Chinese officials, and they got it from Malay.)

China had long had a professional civil service, appointment to which was on the basis of merit in public examinations. In the mid-nineteenth century, the British decided that this was a good idea, and they copied it. (Up to that point civil service appointments in Britain were on the basis of patronage, or simply sale.) In time senior British civil servants, who had been recruited and rose up through this system, began to be referred to as "mandarins". Mandarins in this sense wield considerable power, but they don't get that power on foot of any political mandate or endorsement.

"Unelected mandarin" is a bit of an oxymoron. If you're elected, you're not a mandarin.

Ironically, the term is not apt when applied to, e.g., David Frost being appointed to the House of Lords so that he can become a Cabinet minister without any of that tiresome election by the people/accountability to the House of Commons nonsense. He did get his position from political patronage; the point about mandarins is that they aren't dependent on political patronage.

That little section even has a seperate colour carpet so that the non members know where they can and cannot stand.

It's no wonder the likes of George's Day are anonymous because their traditions are awful stuffy shte.

Its worth reading up on some of the daft City of London traditions like walking a rose around town on a pillow to present to the lord mayor (not the MoL but the useless ceremonial one) as rent for the year. All seem to involve dressing like a prat.