 | | | Subject: The ***** Law
Posted Apr 15, 2009 by ~ jwf ~
| | Posting
1
 | | Only one non-native of Great Britain has ever served as Prime Minister of the UK. His term was not lengthy, but he remains unique. In spite of modern liberal immigration policies the feat has never been repeated. So the question is, is there since, and now, a law preventing it?
~jwf~
|
| | | Subject: The ***** Law
Posted Apr 15, 2009 by thranjax
This is a reply to this Posting
| | Posting
3
 | | Bonar Law was Canadian but his parents were Scottish. I know that. I have no idea about the exact nature of the law regarding Prime Ministerial eligibility.
it doesn't seem to matter if you are canadian when it comes to tennis so I guess the law is quite flexible on this point...
|
| | | Subject: The ***** Law
Posted Apr 15, 2009 by HonestIago
This is a reply to this Posting
| | Posting
5
| | Great Britain just meaning the island I'm presuming. So a native of the island of Ireland who, back in the 18th/19th centuries, would have been a citizen of the UK. So long as he wasn't Catholic, he could have stood for election.
Is it Wellington? He is famous for the quote "Being born in a stable does not make one a pig" when asked about his birthplace.
|
| | | Subject: The ***** Law
Posted Apr 15, 2009 by KB
This is a reply to this Posting
| | Posting
7
| | Following the logic of possible restrictions on the Channel Islands and Isle of Man (due to their own legislatures), Wellington's an interesting one. At the time of his birth Ireland had a separate parliament, but not by the time he became PM...
|
| | | Subject: The ***** Law
Posted Apr 15, 2009 by Otto Fisch (VSC 14 shirt) "Rock and Roll is full of bad wools"
This is a reply to this Posting
| | Posting
8
| |
There were MP representing Irish constituencies in Westminster when Wellington was Prime Minister. From memory the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed around that time, which allowed Catholics to become MPs, but which increased the qualification threshold for the right to vote.
But Wellington was in the Lords, not the Commons. We have Ministers who sit in the Lords rather than the Commons, and it would be interesting to know if it would still be possible today for a Prime Minister to lead from the Lords rather than the Commons. But I think only a British national can receive British honours - I think there was a Canadian banker who had to change nationality to accept a peerage, and Bob Geldof's honours are, er, honorary because he's Irish. If that's the case, that would prevent the Monarch from parachuting a non-British national into the Lords to become Prime Minister.
But I'm not sure to what extent the role of Prime Minister is even constitutionally defined, so maybe in theory all kinds of things are possible, even if they would be against custom and practice.
|
| | | Subject: The ***** Law
Posted Apr 15, 2009 by KB
This is a reply to this Posting
| | Posting
10
| | No, that's just the kind of award he was given. His knighthood is as 'bona fide' as anyone else's, but he wasn't given a peerage, which would make him a Lord.
Irish citizens can also have a full knighthood so long as they have British citizenship, too. Tony O'Reilly (he of the baked beans and newspapers) and Terry Wogan are examples. But under the Irish constitution they are expected to ask the Irish government's consent first.
The whole honours system in the UK has something of the Monty Python about it - how 'special' each different type is supposed to make people and the bizarre titles bestowed are always good for a chuckle.
|
|  |
| | | Subject: The ***** Law
Posted Apr 15, 2009 by ~ jwf ~
This is a reply to this Posting
| | Posting
13
| | Full points to thranjax who got it in post 3. 
But considering the obscurity of the fact there may be doubt as to whether some googling was involved.
Bonar Law was a Canadian from Rexton, New Brunswick, an enclave of British settlement along the Gulf of St Lawrence shores of that province which is otherwise predominantly French.
His details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bonar_Law
including some scandal about the selling of honours.
The question of 'law' was a pinkish herring, being a clue to the name of the correct answer. Happily it also provided a stimulus for the interesting and contradictory discussion of opinions we've seen expressed here concerning eligibility rights and lingering nationalist prejudices.
Rexton is also host to an annual British Car Show.
http://www.batans.ca/Gallery-Events/2008Rexton.html
The white TR6 is me.
~jwf~
|
|
