Taking GEC
If Mr James Prior becomes, as is ex- pected, the new chairman of GEC when he finally leaves his post as Northern Ireland Secretary, he will be following in the footsteps of Lord Carrington, who took the job after resigning as Foreign Secret- ary. Mr Denis Healey has also been offered the job, but has turned it down. Perhaps the chairmanship of GEC is begin- ning to establish a traditional connection with former Cabinet ministers: in a century or so, it will become a vestigial post, a sort of euphemism for resignation or retire- ment. Just as an MP wishing to resign his seat applies for the stewardship of the manor of the Chiltern Hundreds, so a Cabinet Minister will announce that he wishes to become chairman of GEC and will retire gracefully, collecting whatever may be the future equivalent of more than £60,000 a year.
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