Chris Mullin
I have enjoyed reading Chris Mullin’s A View from the Foothills, his diaries from 1999 to 2005, covering his two stints as a junior minister.
They are very revealing as well as entertaining. I enjoyed his comment when he first became a junior minister:
“I am beseiged with invitations to address conferences organised by obscure but no doubt worthy organisations. Mostly they are the crumbs that fall from the tables of my many superiors and my first instinct is to reject the lot. However, they usually come with notes from officials advising acceptance and, reluctantly, I concede. Before long my whole life will be eaten up with pointless activity. One such invite, originally addressed to Nick Raynsford, came with a note from his Private Secretary still attached. It read ‘This is very low priority. I suggest we pass it to Chris Mullin’.”
The joys of ministerial office.
I always thought the main purpose of PPSs was to guarantee the maximum payroll vote; when you look at the actual responsibilities and powers/influence of some of the junior ministerial positions I’m not sure there is much difference but the pay!
Croft: Given that some ministers are unpaid (see an earlier post of mine), the difference in some cases is even less apparent.
Given that PPSs and some ministers are unpaid, I have often thought that we need a different name for the ‘payroll vote’!
I hereby propose the ‘jobsworth vote’, as in [i]it’s more than my jobsworth not to vote for the government however daft their position is![/i]
Croft: It is certainly a more accurate and comprehensive term than the ‘payroll vote’. It may catch on. I certainly cannot think of anything to improve on it.