Chapter Text
NOTICE in the Crown Office section of the London Gazette, 29 March 198_
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN has been pleased by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm dated 28 March 198_ to appoint THE RT HON JAMES HACKER MP to the Office and Dignity of Lord President of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, to serve as such during Her pleasure.
From the Hacker Diaries, 28 March
Lord President of the Council! You could have knocked me over with a feather. Obviously I did a jolly good job with the Percy affair, and the PM knows I’m popular with the voluntary party, but to make me Lord President without moving me out of the DAA is a huge compliment. He said whilst it would normally be the Leader of the House, poor Sheila is feeling terribly overworked, and he couldn’t imagine anyone more suited to discharging the delicate constitutional duties of the post than me. I suppose tomorrow I should find out exactly what they are. Humphrey will know. I mean, obviously I have to attend Cabinet, but I already do that anyway. And attend on Her Majesty, though I’ll have to get past the PM first, he’s awfully jealous of anyone else getting Royal attention. The Home Secretary was going on and on at Cabinet last week about holding a Great Office of State. Well, yah boo sucks to him, I’ve got a…. well, a Greater one.(1)
From the Appleby Papers
Summoned today to the Cabinet Secretary. Hacker is going to be made Lord President with immediate effect. And Sir Arnold doesn’t know why . Or at least, if he does, he’s a better actor than I ever suspected. I could understand an emergency appointment to an ordinary job, Ministers have peccadilloes come to light, or want to escape some oncoming crisis, or have medical emergencies. But even my long experience of Ministers and their foibles struggles to explain this decision.
Briefing note on the duties of the Lord President of the Privy Council, prepared for the Secretary of State for Administrative Affairs by T.J.Coverley, Deputy Assistant Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary, on the request of Bernard Woolley, with annotations by the latter.
-
Chair meetings of the Privy Council for the purpose of approving Orders in Council, advising the Sovereign, exercising Prerogative Powers, etc. Ceremonial duty, the quorum is three members meeting approximately monthly in the presence of the Sovereign for her to approve routine Government business. This is good for the odd foreign junket with Her Majesty I suppose. And a lot of time on the train to and from Balmoral.
-
Act as Visitor of various universities and colleges, a largely ceremonial role with some vestigial responsibility for settling disputes and overseeing governance. Largely obsolete holdover from the 19th century when the Lord President was responsible for schools. Ceremonial, vestigial and obsolete? Sounds about right.
-
Assume such duties as Minister without Portfolio as the Prime Minister shall assign. Nicely vague. And the DAA is already supposed to have a coordinating role so nothing changes really.
-
Bear the Sword of State at Coronations.Really Teresa, I hardly think we are likely to have to worry about that.
Transcript of security tape from the Ministerial car, 30 March
ANNIE: So what exactly is this new thing you’ve got? It doesn’t mean you’re going to be a Lord, does it? I quite fancy being Lady Hacker but Lucy will be upset, she doesn’t believe in that sort of thing, ‘specially as girls can’t inherit them.
JIM: No, no, it’s Lord President, not a Lord at all, quite different. I’ll stay as an MP.
ANNIE: So what is it then?
JIM: Well it’s a real feather in my cap, a show of confidence from the PM in my skill and judgement.
ANNIE: What sort of thing do you have to judge skilfully? Aren’t the Law Lords something to do with the Privy Council? And the Colonies?
JIM: They’re both different bits of it. I advise Her Majesty on exercising Her prerogatives.
ANNIE: But I thought the PM did that?
JIM: Well in practice yes, he does. But I tell her what we want to do and she tells me she approves it.ANNIE: I thought he met her every week to do that?
JIM: Well yes, he does, but that isn’t official so I have to meet her separately.ANNIE: So you’re an official messenger boy between the PM and the Queen? It sounds like you’d need more Skill and Judgement to chair the parish fete committee.
JIM: It’s much more important than that!
ANNIE: Doesn’t sound like it. Is there anything else?
JIM: If there’s a Coronation, I have to parade in Court uniform with the Sword of State.ANNIE: Is that likely to happen before the next election then?
JIM: Er, not that I know of.
ANNIE: And isn’t Court uniform tights and a tailcoat? What were they going to do about Sheila? She’s lovely, pillar of the Chapel and all that, but she’d look a bit like a panto dame if you put her in tights and tails at her age.
JIM: You said it, not me.
Sir Bernard Woolley GCB, in conversation with the editors
I suppose it was rather a shock to have the Minister appointed Lord President but it really didn’t make much difference to the Department - he would be away once or twice a month and that was more or less it. Though it was a bit of a surprise to walk into his office and find him in full court uniform. I remember thinking he had quite good legs. I explained he didn’t have to wear it for meetings with the Queen and of course he knew that, he wanted to have it just in case. I believed him. It was my job to believe the Minister.
Sir Humphrey said from the start that “the celerity of the Minister’s elevation indicates indubitably some ulterior motive on the part of the Premier not necessarily compatible with the continued flourishing of the appointee’s career or the efficient discharge of his present responsibilities.” I don’t quite know why he couldn’t just say that the PM was up to something, it didn’t bode well for the Minister, and he didn’t know what it was. Force of habit, I suppose.
(1) British politics has two completely separate sets of jobs known as “The Great Offices of State”. The ‘traditional’ or ‘ceremonial’ ones (Lord Privy Seal, Lord President of the Privy Council etc.) are all medieval or Tudor creations and today mostly relate to royal ceremonies. The ‘modern’ set are the PM and the top three ministers in the Cabinet. This makes no sense and is thus in the best British tradition.