Absence of The Office in The Constitution
Many theories exist as to the absence of a formal post of Deputy Prime Minister in Britain's uncodified constitution. Theoretically the sovereign possesses the unrestricted right to choose someone to form a government following the death, resignation or dismissal of a Prime Minister. One argument made to justify the non-existence of a permanent deputy premiership is that such an office-holder would be seen as possessing a presumption of succession to the premiership, thereby effectively limiting the sovereign's right to choose a prime minister.
However, only two Deputy Prime Ministers have gone on to become Prime Minister. Clement Attlee won the 1945 general election and succeeded Winston Churchill after their coalition broke up but only after a two-month interval when Attlee was not a member of the government. Anthony Eden succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister not because he had been Deputy Prime Minister, but because he had long been seen as Churchill's heir apparent and natural successor. The intermittent existence of a Deputy Prime Minister has been on occasion so informal that there have been a number of occasions on which dispute has arisen as to whether or not the title has actually been conferred.
The position of Deputy Prime Minister is not recognised in UK law, so any post-holder must be given an additional title in order to have legal status and to be paid a salary additional to the parliamentary one. The present Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, was appointed Lord President of the Council, a ministerial position who presides over meetings of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council and has few other formal responsibilities, for this reason. On some occasions the post of First Secretary of State has been used; when John Prescott lost his departmental responsibilities in a reshuffle in 2005 he was given the office to enable him to retain a ministerial post, and Michael Heseltine was similarly appointed.
Read more about this topic: Deputy Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the words absence of, absence, office and/or constitution:
“The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning—in other words, of absurdity—the more energetically meaning is sought.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“The astonishment of life, is, the absence of any appearance of reconciliation between the theory and the practice of life.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The House of Lords, architecturally, is a magnificent room, and the dignity, quiet, and repose of the scene made me unwillingly acknowledge that the Senate of the United States might possibly improve its manners. Perhaps in our desire for simplicity, absence of title, or badge of office we may have thrown over too much.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)