Private Secretaries

Private Secretaries
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TV Series 1953–1957 1953–1957 TV-G TV-G 30 m
Susie is secretary to handsome talent agent Peter Sands and keeps getting messed up in (and messing up) his private life. She's assisted (usually) by receptionist Vi and semi-rival Sylvia. C... Read all Susie is secretary to handsome talent agent Peter Sands and keeps getting messed up in (and messing up) his private life. She's assisted (usually) by receptionist Vi and semi-rival Sylvia. Cagey is Peter's business rival. The show alternated Sunday nights with "The Jack Benny Sho... Read all Susie is secretary to handsome talent agent Peter Sands and keeps getting messed up in (and messing up) his private life. She's assisted (usually) by receptionist Vi and semi-rival Sylvia. Cagey is Peter's business rival. The show alternated Sunday nights with "The Jack Benny Show."
5 years 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 See all
Under the title "Susie", this was shown again in syndicated reruns in the 1960's, sometimes in rotation with "The Ann Sothern Show" (when the entire series "Susie" ended, episodes of "The Ann Sothern Show" would begin, then after they had ended, "Susie" began again, from its first episode to its last).
Television provided a lease on life for the careers of so many players in the second tier in Hollywood. As fewer films were made many had to go to television for work. One of the luckiest in that regard was Ann Sothern who had series experience of a sort when she starred in the long running Maisie series of films. Sothern found herself a role that perfectly suited her personality, Susie McNamara Private Secretary to theatrical agent Don Porter and all around girl Friday. It was like Maisie Revere had given up the life of a wandering showgirl and took typing and stenography and became a secretary. Sothern's character has been compared to Lucille Ball, but I think there was a world of difference. Sothern never did harebrained stuff like Lucy Ricardo did. She always zealously guarded the interests of her boss and never had to be rescued from the consequences of a plan. Her's usually worked. The Ethel Mertz of the story was Ann Tyrell who was the switchboard operator. Tyrell sometimes bordered on the hysterical waiting to see if a Sothern scheme would work. She also had the longest neck I've ever seen, it's one of the things I remember well as a kid seeing this show. The comic villain was Jesse White as rival bottom feeding agent Cagey Calhoun. As Michael Francis Calhoun was nicknamed 'Cagey' he in turn called her 'Foxy' the only one whoever did. White always thought he was so clever and lost as many times as Wile E. Coyote. Wit and character were the hallmarks of Private Secretary which would be great if it were revived for the 21st century. It's timeless.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leading position in the UK Royal Household

^ The principal channel of communication between the monarch and the governments in Canada is the Canadian Secretary to the Queen .

^ "Report of the Security Commission - May 2004" (PDF) .

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Chris Cook and Brendan Keith, British Historical Facts 1830-1800 , Macmillan 1975, p. 107.

The Private Secretary to the Sovereign is the senior operational member of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom (as distinct from the Great Officers of the Household , whose duties are largely ceremonial). The Private Secretary is the principal channel of communication between the monarch and the governments in most of the Commonwealth realms . [note 1] They also have responsibility for the official programme and correspondence of the Sovereign. Through these roles the position wields considerable influence.

The office of Private Secretary was first established in 1805. As of 2021 [update] the position has been held exclusively by men. Two women have served as Deputy and Assistant Private Secretary, respectively. The current Private Secretary is Sir Edward Young who succeeded Sir Christopher Geidt in 2017.

Colonel Herbert Taylor , who was appointed in 1805, is acknowledged as the first Private Secretary to the Sovereign. However, the office was not formally established until 1867. Constitutionally there was some opposition on the part of Ministers to the creation of an office which might grow to have considerable influence upon the Sovereign. However, it was soon realised that the Sovereign was in need of secretarial support, since his or her Ministers had ceased to provide daily advice and support with the growth of ministerial government. Queen Victoria did not have a Private Secretary until she appointed General Charles Grey to the office in 1861; her husband Prince Albert had effectively been her secretary until his death.

The principal functions of the office are:

The position of Private Secretary is regarded as equivalent to that of the permanent secretary of a government department. The incumbent is always made a Privy Counsellor on appointment, and has customarily received a peerage upon retirement (a life peerage since 1972, although a small number have been given hereditary titles). Until 1965, peerages granted to Private Secretaries were hereditary baronies, with the exception of Lord Knollys, who was created a viscount in 1911. All Private Secretaries since the time of Lord Stamfordham have been created peers, with the exceptions of Sir Alexander Hardinge (inherited his father's barony in 1944), Sir Alan Lascelles (declined as he felt titles to be a show of self-importance) and Sir William Heseltine (who is an Australian).

Private Secretaries to the Sovereign are always appointed Knights Bachelor (Kt), or knights of one of the orders of chivalry, typically the Order of The Bath. The same is true for Principal Private Secretaries to other members of the Royal Household , such as The Prince of Wales .

The Private Secretary is head of only one of the several operational divisions of the Royal Household . However, he or she is involved in co-ordination between various parts of the Household, and has direct control over the Press Office , the Queen's Archives , and the office of the Defence Services Secretary .

The Private Secretary is responsible for liaising with the Cabinet Secretary , the Privy Council Office (PCO), and the Ministry of Justice's Crown Office in relation to:

Reporting to the Private Secretary is the role of Director for Security Liaison which was established following a recommendation of the Security Commission in 2004. [1] The post was first held by Brigadier Jeffrey Cook , OBE MC , who was in office 2004-2008. The Private Secretary has general oversight of security policy, though the Master of the Household is also involved, and the Keeper of the Privy Purse has responsibility for the ceremonial bodyguards, such as the Gentlemen at Arms and the Yeomen of the Guard .

Lieutenant-General Sir Herbert Taylor , GCB , GCH [2]

The Viscount Melbourne , PC [2] (informally, while Prime Minister)

The Lord Knollys , GCB , GCVO , KCMG , ISO (later Viscount Knollys) [2]

Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Stamfordham , GCB , GCVO , GCIE , KCSI , KCMG , ISO

Major Sir Alexander Hardinge , GCB , GCVO , MC (later Lord Hardinge of Penshurst)

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Michael Adeane , GCB , GCVO (later Lord Adeane)

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Martin Charteris , GCB , GCVO , OBE (later Lord Charteris of Amisfield)

Sir Philip Moore , GCB , GCVO , CMG (later Lord Moore of Wolvercote)

Sir Robert Fellowes , GCB , GCVO (later Lord Fellowes)

Lieutenant Sir Robin Janvrin , GCB , GCVO (later Lord Janvrin)

Sir Christopher Geidt , GCB , GCVO , OBE (later Lord Geidt)

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederick Ponsonby , KCB , KCVO

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edward Ford , GCVO , KCB , ERD , DL

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Martin Charteris , KCVO , CB , OBE

Finest Hour 183
The Private Secretaries

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#thinkchurchill

John (known as “Jock”) Colville (1915–87)
Two of Winston Churchill’s longest serving private secretaries were, like the man they worked for, keen and sharp-witted observers, as shown here.
John (known as “Jock”) Colville (1915–87) was as an Assistant Private Secretary to Churchill twice during the Second World War , his service interrupted by time in the RAF. He served Churchill again, as a Joint Principal Private Secretary, in 1951–55. He also worked briefly for Clement Attlee in 1945. When Attlee praised one of his own appointments as someone who “was at Haileybury, my old school,” Colville recorded in his diary that “Churchill, though he sometimes said nice things about me, never included in his recommendations that we were both Old Harrovians. I concluded that the old school tie counted even more in Labour than in Conservative circles.”
Anthony Montague Browne (1923–2013) also served as an RAF pilot during the Second World War and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions against the Japanese in Burma. He joined Churchill’s staff when he was chosen to be Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister in September 1952. After Churchill’s retirement in 1955, Montague Browne continued to serve Churchill as Private Secretary until Churchill’s death ten years later. When the behavior of Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden became increasingly difficult to cope with in 1953, Montague Browne remarked to Eden’s Private Office: “The difference between us is that I work for a great historical figure, and you work for a great hysterical one.”
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Home > Explainers > Parliamentary private secretaries
Catherine Haddon , 01 September 2022

A parliamentary private secretary (PPS) is an MP who serves as an unpaid assistant to a government minister .

A parliamentary private secretary’s duties vary considerably between departments and the minister they work alongside. The most basic part of the PPS role is collecting and passing on documents from civil servants to their minister while he or she is speaking in parliament. Beyond that, they serve as an informal liaison between their minister and their party’s MPs.

As part of the latter role, PPSs attempt to relay the mood of the parliamentary party back to their minister and are often described as being that minister's ‘eyes and ears’ in the Commons. Equally, they are an important channel of communication from their minister to parliament as they explain and defend their department’s policies to their party’s MPs.

No, but many of the same restrictions apply to their conduct. The ministerial code states that "parliamentary private secretaries are expected to support the government in divisions in the House", and that "no parliamentary private secretary who votes against the government can retain his or her position". They are also expected to "avoid associating themselves with recommendations critical of or embarrassing to the government".

Despite being bound by many of the same rules as a government minister, PPSs lack many of the same privileges. They do not attend cabinet meetings, are not privy to the same level of sensitive information, and cannot contribute to departmental discussions unless explicitly permitted by their minister.

As they are not members of the government, PPSs are also barred from speaking or answering questions from the frontbench in parliament.

For MPs seeking to one day reach higher office, a role as a PPS is highly coveted: it is generally considered the first rung on the ladder to becoming a fully-fledged minister. Jo Johnson , who held various ministerial roles between 2016 and 2020, said that the experience of being a PPS “gave you a bit more of an understanding about some of the various things that a minister is required to do: the performance in the chamber, the performance in parliament”.

All cabinet ministers and ministers of state are entitled, but not obliged, to appoint a parliamentary private secretary. As of April 2022, when the government published an update on PPSs [1] , there are 51 PPSs. This is the highest number ever recorded.

The number of PPSs has approached an all-time high in recent times, having significantly increased since the beginning of the 20th century. However, the number of ministerial resignations during Theresa May's premiership led to many former PPSs being promoted to replace vacant ministerial roles. As the pool of MPs who are eligible to be parliamentary secretaries decreased, so did the number of PPSs . The figures released in June 2019 showed fewer PPSs working for ministers than at any other time since 1980.

Boris Johnson’s government has gradually increased the number of PPSs since taking office in 2019. Gov.uk has also released lists of the names of PPSs more frequently in recent times, with releases in January, April and June 2022. While this is good for transparency, it also indicates a higher rate of turnover and resignations.

As MPs who are obliged to vote with the government, PPSs form part of the ‘ payroll vote ’ of guaranteed support to government (despite taking no extra salary). However, as they are not government ministers , the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 – which caps the number of holders of ministerial office that can sit in the House of Commons at any one time at 95 – does not apply to them.

This has led to accusations that successive governments have used PPS appointments to inflate their payroll vote, while at the same time decreasing the number of MPs who can properly scrutinise government policy. Governments have defended the role of parliamentary private secretaries as providing an important channel between parliament and government, as well as for the useful experience it gives to the next generation of ministers.

In May 2022, Laura Farris, Andy Carter and Alberto Costa, all members of the Commons Privileges Committee, resigned as PPSs, presumably in order to continue their work on the investigation into whether Boris Johnson knowingly misled parliament . [2]
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