Position
The position of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was created in the British governmental reorganisation of 1782, in which the Northern and Southern Departments became the Home and Foreign Offices respectively. The position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs came into existence in 1968 with the merger of the functions of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs into a single Department of State. The India Office was a predecessor department of the Foreign Office.
The Foreign Secretary is a member of the Cabinet, and the post is considered one of the Great Offices of State. The Foreign Secretary works out of the Foreign Office in Whitehall. The post's official residences are 1 Carlton Gardens in London and Chevening in Kent. In the 2006 reshuffle, Margaret Beckett became the first (and only) woman to hold the post.
The current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is the Right Honourable William Hague MP.
Read more about this topic: Secretary Of State For Foreign And Commonwealth Affairs
Famous quotes containing the word position:
“It’s a fact that it is much more comfortable to be in the position of the person who has been offended than to be the unfortunate cause of it.”
—Barbara Walters (b. 1931)
“From a purely external point of view there is no will; and to find will in any phenomenon requires a certain empathy; we observe a man’s actions and place ourselves partly but not wholly in his position; or we act, and place ourselves partly in the position of an outsider.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“He who is usually self-sufficient becomes exceptionally vain and keenly alive to fame and praise when he is physically ill. The more he loses himself the more he has to endeavor to regain his position by means of the opinion of others.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)