British Official Quits in Odd Fashion
Posted on: Wednesday, 8 September 2004, 06:00 CDT
LONDON - Once elected to the House of Commons, one does not resign. But lawmakers can escape to a non-existent job.
Exercising a quaint Parliamentary rule, former Trade Secretary and Labor Party lawmaker Peter Mandelson successfully applied Wednesday to become steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.
Northstead is under water, and the appointment entails no duties. But it did free Mandelson to take up his new job as a commissioner of the European Union.
Under a rule imposed in 1623, lawmakers cannot resign their seats. But they can disqualify themselves.
Those who choose to do so usually apply to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what is known as "an office of profit under the Crown," which makes them ineligible to sit in the House of Commons.
The two moribund offices traditionally used are that of steward and bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham, or of the Manor of Northstead. Once appointed, the lawmaker is disqualified from the Commons.
The Manor of Northstead consisted of fields and farms in the parish of Scalby in Yorkshire. The main house was described as a ruin as long ago as 1600.
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