List Of Stewards Of The Chiltern Hundreds
Appointment to the position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds is a procedural device to allow Members of Parliament to resign from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Members of the House of Commons are technically forbidden from resigning. To circumvent this prohibition, a legal fiction is used. An appointment to an "office of profit under The Crown" disqualifies an individual from sitting as a Member of Parliament (MP). As such, several such positions are maintained to allow MPs to resign. Currently, the positions of Steward of the Manor of Northstead and Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds are used; historically several other offices have also been used. The position was reworked in 1861 by William Ewart Gladstone, who was worried about the honour conferred by appointment to people such as Edwin James, who had fled to the United States over £10,000 in debt. As such, the letter was rewritten to omit any references to honour.
The Parliamentary Information Office has produced a list of those appointed to the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds since 1850. The current office holder is Denis MacShane, former Labour Party Member of Parliament for Rotherham, who was appointed to the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds on 5 November 2012.
Appointees to the offices of Steward of the Manor of Northstead and Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds are alternated so that two MPs can resign at once (as happened on 22 October 2012). In situations in which more than two resign, such as the 1985 walkout of Ulster Unionist MPs, appointees are "fired" after a few hours to allow other resigning MPs to take their place.
Read more about List Of Stewards Of The Chiltern Hundreds: Key, 1751 To 1800, 1801 To 1849, 1850 To 1899, 1900 To 1999, 2000 To Present
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list and/or hundreds:
“Do your children view themselves as successes or failures? Are they being encouraged to be inquisitive or passive? Are they afraid to challenge authority and to question assumptions? Do they feel comfortable adapting to change? Are they easily discouraged if they cannot arrive at a solution to a problem? The answers to those questions will give you a better appraisal of their education than any list of courses, grades, or test scores.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Geroge Peatty: I’m gonna have it, Sherry. Hundreds of thousands, maybe a half million.
Sherry Peatty: Of course you are, darling. Did you put the right address on the envelope when you sent it to the North Pole?”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)