David Cameron returns: how can a prime minister make someone who isn’t an MP foreign secretary? And what happens now?

Thomas Caygill, Nottingham Trent University In a surprise move, Rishi Sunak, the UK’s prime minister, has appointed former prime minister David Cameron as foreign secretary. Cameron, who resigned immediately after losing the 2016 Brexit referendum, has been almost entirely absent from the political scene ever since. It’s rare these days for a prime minister to appoint someone who is not a sitting member of the House of Commons as a cabinet level minister in their government but Sunak certainly can do it. The prime minister has what we call the power of patronage. What we mean by this is that there are a number of public roles for which the prime minister gets to decide who gets the job. Those powers of patronage include appointing members of the cabinet as well as other junior ministers to serve in government. It is only a constitutional convention, rather than a rule, that government ministers be a member of either house of parliament. However, it is a convention that has been strongly abided by. This convention revolves around the constitutional principle of responsible...

Read More........ → November 14, 2023

When it comes to Indigenous affairs, Australian voters’ opinions are complicated

Geoffrey Robinson, Deakin University The academic study of public opinion is a well-developed area. One foundational finding is that while the views of voters often seem contradictory and incoherent, these apparent inconsistencies have a pattern. The views that voters express in opinion polls reveal that many voters, especially those disengaged from politics, understand key concepts such as “equality” and “disadvantage” in a very different way from political elites of both left and right. The fact that public opinion does not align with traditional “left” and “right” viewpoints means that both progressives and conservatives have opportunities to gain majority support. The marriage equality plebiscite dashed conservatives’ dreams of a suburban “silent majority”. The Voice referendum seems likely to be disappointing for the left. The dynamics of both ballots are similar. One key finding from the study of popular ideology is that voters often express loyalty to general principles while also supporting policies that contradict those principles. Often these general principles are conservative....

Read More........ → October 12, 2023

Georgia grand jury indicts former US President Trump, alleging 'conspiracy to unlawfully change outcome' of 2020 presidential election

Trump at last month's Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. Image: Gage Skidmore.Last Monday, a Fulton County, Georgia grand jury seated in Atlanta indicted nineteen people, including former United States President Donald Trump, on 41 counts overall, Trump himself facing thirteen. Referencing the Republican's election loss to President Joe Biden in 2020 in Georgia and nationally, it alleged they "refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump." The grand jury's indictment continued: "That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states." Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told press later the accused had eleven days to surrender. Trump faced a charge of violating the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) along with his co-defendants; three counts of soliciting a public officer to violate...

Read More........ → August 21, 2023