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By Ned Simons - 1st March 2011
Ministers that formed Gordon Brown's 'government of all the talents', known as the Goats, found adjusting to parliamentary life bewildering.
Under Brown, several Westminster outsiders who did not have parliamentary experience were given peerages and handed ministerial positions.
The then prime minister argued that appointing outsiders enabled him to widen the skills and experience available to the government. But opponents have said their lack of political and parliamentary knowledge was a serious handicap.
Professor Sir Ara Darzi was made health minister, former UN deputy general secretary Mark Malloch-Brown was made a Foreign Office minister and the then CBI director Digby Jones was made a business minister.
But all three quit their posts, with Baron Jones later telling the public administration committee that his time as a minister was "one of the most dehumanising and depersonalising experiences" anyone could have.
According to a report by University College London's Constitution Unit these 'outsider' ministers expressed some "bewilderment" at the responsibilities of being a junior minister.
The authors of Putting Goats amongst the Wolves: Appointing Ministers from outside Parliament were told by one former minister that he found his initial experiences in the Lords chamber "intimidating" and "humiliating" given his lack of experience in parliamentary procedure.
Another said: “I was dropped right in it. A few weeks after appointment I was taking a bill through the Lords…It was sink or swim".
The report also questioned whether peers appointed for specific expertise, such as the former admiral who was made a security minister in the Home Office, were aware of the broad base of knowledge they would have to display when representing their departments in the Lords.
One peer commented: "Did anyone bother to tell Lord West that he would be answering questions on dangerous dogs in the House?”
Among the recommendations in the report is the suggestion that all future appointments out of outsider Ministers should be of ‘hybrid’ candidates who have both technocratic and political skills.
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