Gubberment jobs

[Talksteer]

dirty boy said:

Alistair Darling. Chancellor of the Exchequer. Qualified Solicitor.

In what way does this qualify him to run HM Treasury, being responsible for all economic and financial matters of the UK?

How much does he get paid? Not a great deal I suspect?

Shouldn't the UK be paying top whack for the best in the country?

Look at this guy...I want him running the country finances (or someone equally as good) Not a solicitor.

Curriculum vitae

Name: Andrew Higginson
Age: 50
Qualification: FCMA

Chairmanships: Tesco Personal Finance
Non-executive, independent directorships: BskyB
Member of The Hundred Group of Finance Directors

Career
1997- Group finance and strategy director, Tesco plc
1994-97 Group finance director, The Burton Group plc
1990-94 Finance director, Laura Ashley Holdings plc
1987-90 Finance director, Guinness Brewing International
1986-87 Controller, Guinness Overseas (Brewing) Ltd
1984-86 Commercial manager, Lever Brothers China Ltd
1980-84 Internal Auditor, UCMDS Graduate Entry Scheme, Unilever plc



What other Government jobs are there where the person doing it is equally unqualified to do so?

This is the person who has the equivalent job spec - Permanent Secretary to the Treasury.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Macpherson

Salary is £225,000 plus a knighthood and other perks.

All ministerial departments are actually run by permanent secretaries who have extensive experience in their departments are are usually formidably qualified. The permanent secretary's job is to implement their political masters policies and also to tell them what the likely outcome of their policies will be.

The head of finance at a major plc is an entirely different job to being an elected official especially under the UK system with a cabinet style government who is drawn from the legislature. The chancellor aside from occasionally being directly responsible to the electorate is also responsible to the parliament party of the governing party.

The US system is somewhat different in that the president is elected separately the legislature and so effectively gets a freeish pick as to who he wants to lead each department. As a result the secretaries of state in the US are much closer in qualifications and experience to the permanent secretaries in the UK.

[OneDs]

Talksteer said:

The head of finance at a major plc is an entirely different job to being an elected official especially under the UK system with a cabinet style government who is drawn from the legislature. The chancellor aside from occasionally being directly responsible to the electorate is also responsible to the parliament party of the governing party.

Indeed the chancellor is more akin to being a very inappropriate non-exec director and the HM Treasury Perm sec is the executive director for Finance. Actually the main job of the chancellor is to represent a very small selection of voters in the Houses of Parliament. The chancellors Finance role is about third or less in terms of vocational commitments.

[Asterix]

Let's put things into context here - had the wife and I been in the UK last year, we would have paid over £80k in tax alone.

Why do you think we're out of the system?

I was running a business and got hammered by the tax man. I then realised around 7 years ago that Labour was not going anywhere and I upped sticks and left.

Who's the poorer?