I think I like it, it seems logical but I still need to be fully convinced. The American version of the Chancellor is always someone who is well respected within Wall Street circles and has loads of experience in finance. Our Alistair Darling is a solicitor...enuff said!

How would Question Time with a given Minister work, though? I'm worried we'd have to change the entire face of our governmental structure. Change is good, but too much change is scary.

I'm in the party to see Labour MPs and Ministers put forward our manifesto. You can pick out talented individuals to advise or work for the Government, but ultimately this is political.  The fact that Alistair Darling is a solicitor by training is a red herring. We wouldn't expect Des Browne to be able to drive a tank.  What we do want is for decisions to be taken in accordance to the public and party interest. 

Thinking of the recent 'Government of all the talents' stuff and Cameron's search for a non-partisan mayoral candidate in London, I think we're in danger of reinforcing the sense that politicians aren't up to the job. Maybe some aren't, but it's a novel manifesto - vote for us and we'll get someone else in to do the job because we have no confidence in our own lot. Actually that might appeal at the moment...

The efficiency part of the equation is (or should be ) taken care of by the civil service.  The cabinet and decision makers should be appointed by the electorate democratically  - I want to be REPRESENTED!
 

It seems to me a more professional cabinet could make a lot of sense, particularly now the Lords are (virtually) all appointed, leaving MPs to focus on their constituency and scrutiny roles. The government would continue to need the confidence of the Commons as the elected representatives, unlike the US where a government is only accountable every four years with the Presidential election. None of this would need any legislation (though the Chancellor and Treasury ministers would still need to be MPs given the Commons legislative monopoly on finance bills).

Along with this could and would probably need to go more political appointments in the Civil Service, but as policy experts and managers rather than glorified press officers as seems primarily the case now. If, as in the US case, this was often achieved with having people take academic posts in the meantime this would also vastly improve the quality of teaching and relevance of research in policy relevant areas.

In many countries picking cabinet members from outside the ranks of politics is normal, and in some you cannot be an MP and a minister simultaneously (for example, in France, if you are appointed as a minister, you have to resign your parliamentary seat, although you can pass it on to a designated 'suppleant' from your own party).

I think we need more people with backgrounds in business, in public sector management, academia, the armed forces etc. I don't think that having a government full of professional career politicians who have been working to become an MP since they were sixteen and have never had a proper job or any life experience outside of politics, is particularly healthy.

There are two problems - we tend to be set in our ways in Britain, and to resist new ideas. I can remember all the controversy when Tony Blair tried to abolish the Lord Chancellorship and the roles of Secretaries of State for Scotland and Wales.

Plus a key part of being a politician is dealing with a 24-hour news media who will tear you apart if you say anything remotely controversial or which could be construed as even slightly different to the official line. This is a real problem for many people who lack political experience - look at some of the problems Mark Malloch Brown and Lord West have had with the media.

I can't agree with this at all. Every member of the Cabinet (and indeed all government ministers) should have been democratically elected in some form or another.

Unfortunately this is not what we have now as some unelected Lords sit round the Cabinet table, but hopefully Lords' reform should change all that.

It would be impossible to have an unelected Cabinet in the UK because we don't have a Presidential system. We have a Parliamentary system run by Cabinet Government where ministers have to be accountable to the Commons or the Lords. Our Cabinet members are much more high-profile than their American counterparts. The Chancellor of the Exhequer is far more important in Britain than the Treasury Secretary is in the States.