Shared Ministers & Whips

This latest reshuffle by the British Prime Minister is notable for many things - the first reshuffle in years carried out before the election results came out, the rarity of one precipiated by ministers announcing their departure from government (and in some cases, parliament) on a day-by-day basis and the oft-remarked increased influence of government by the House of Lords.

But two other features stood out for me.

Firstly, its the first time I can remember when there have been shared appointments between a government department and the whips office. Previously they'd always been thought of as quite distinct functions. But Diana Johnson (Hull North, and Education/Whips), Lord Young (Business/Whips) and Lord Davies (Environment/Whips)all straddle this divide, presumably both determining policy proposals (a ministers job) and then securing it (a whips job).

Given the distinct roles both play in committee and on the floor of the House it will be interesting to see how things happen in practice (of course, in the Lords, Whips have been customarily spokesmen for departments, usually when there isn't a departmental minister in the Lords, but being a minister is quite different from being a spokesman)

Secondly, no fewer than 13 ministers are shared between government departments. What started as an apparently quite sensible idea of sharing a Trade Minister between the DTI and the Foreign Office, has now ballooned to the extent that at ministerial level there are only 48 MPs below Cabinet level who don't share a job with another department.