In the United Kingdom, there are at least six Lords of the Treasury who serve concurrently. Traditionally, this board (serving as a commission for the Lord High Treasurer) consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the Treasury, and four or more junior lords (to whom this title is usually applied).
Strictly they are commissioners for exercising the office of Lord High Treasurer (similar to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty exercising the office of Lord High Admiral). This office has continually been in commission since the resignation in 1714 of Charles, Duke of Shrewsbury, who was appointed to the office by Queen Anne on her deathbed.
Until the 19th century, this commission made most of the economic decisions of Great Britain (England, before the Act of Union 1707). However, starting during the 19th century, these positions became sinecure positions, with the First Lord serving almost invariably as Prime Minister, the Second Lord invariably as Chancellor of the Exchequer (the exchequer being the modern treasury of the United Kingdom), and the junior lords serving as assistant whips in Parliament.
Currently, there are seven lords of the treasury:
- Prime Minister and First Lord – The Rt Hon. David Cameron MP
- Chancellor of the Exchequer and Second Lord – The Rt Hon. George Osborne MP
- Junior Lords
- The Rt Hon. Desmond Swayne MP
- Anne Milton MP
- Mark Lancaster MP
- David Evenett MP
- Robert Goodwill MP
- Stephen Crabb MP
Famous quotes containing the words lord of the, lord and/or treasury:
“I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra. Lord of the lash,
the Loup Garou Kid. Half breed son of Pisces and
Aquarius. I hold the souls of men in my pot. I do
the dirty boogie with scorpions. I make the bulls
keep still and was the first swinger to grape the taste.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” you may indeed set over you a king whom the LORD your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 17:14,15.
“In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)