The Idea
Imagine if you could create a political party made up from people you believed would not only be right for the job but also have their finger on the pulse of their online community.
Then imagine that the people around you (family, friends, personal/business network Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter or other social media platform etc) thought the same as you…
Well now you can (at least for fun that is) and help fantastic causes at the same time. (see ‘All for a Good Cause’ below)
We want you to put together a list of people that you believe could run the UK. You can put forward ANY individual you feel would be ideal e.g. Richard Branson as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, First Secretary and Lord President of the Council, Kirstie Allsopp as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families or Paul Weston as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The candidates within your Cabinet don’t need to be ‘famous’ but will need to be found online so the people can research them and then decide if they agree with you. We also encourage you to put links to other sites that have posts from them or people writing about them that will support your reason(s) for putting them forward. And don’t forget to let the individuals know as well 
All for a Good Cause
As well as being a bit of fun, our aim is to create awareness and raise funds for the East Anglia’s Children Hospice who has launched its first major capital appeal – The Treehouse Appeal – to raise £3 million to build and equip a new purpose-built children’s hospice in Ipswich for life-threatened children and their families in Suffolk & North Essex. EACH relies on the generosity of the public for 100% of the funds needed to make this project a reality.
However, as well as putting forward your Cabinet, we also want you to have a nominated charity, that you feel passionate about and one that your Cabinet will be promoting. The top 5 supported Cabinets by the 5th May will be the ones that go forward to the ‘Search for a Cabinet -Social Media‘ election on the 6th May.
How will the funds be raised?
On voting day, 6th May, people will vote using PayPal. Each vote will cost £1. 100% of the proceeds raised will be split evenly across all 6 charities (5 Cabinet nominated charities and the EACH Treehouse Appeal ). So every vote will count!
The Cabinet Positions
There are actually 32 positions within the cabinet – although not all of them attend every cabinet meeting. So from these 32 we need your input on whether to reduce the list to a smaller number to represent the ones you feel are most important?
| Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service | |
| Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal | |
| Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, First Secretary and Lord President of the Council | |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs | |
| Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor | |
| Secretary of State for the Home Department | |
| Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | |
| Secretary of State for International Development | |
| Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government | |
| Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families | |
| Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change | |
| Secretary of State for Health | |
| Secretary of State for Northern Ireland | |
| Leader of the House of Lords and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| Minister for the Cabinet Office, and for the Olympics and Paymaster General | |
| Secretary of State for Scotland | |
| Secretary of State for Work and Pensions | |
| Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
| Secretary of State for Wales | |
| Secretary of State for Defence | |
| Secretary of State for Transport | |
| Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport | |
| Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform | |
| Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills | |
| Minister of State for Housing | |
| Minister of State for Science and Innovation | |
| Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip | |
| Attorney General | |
| Minister of State for Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination; Local Government | |
| Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families | |
| Minister of State for Transport | |
Using your Social Media Networks
Promoting your Cabinet, and nominated charity, will be left to you i.e. encouraging the people you know in your networks to take part and spread the word to their networks etc. Each time someone posts support in favour of your Cabinet it will receive 1 point and the 5 Cabinets with the most points will be put forward as the ‘Search for a Cabinet – Social Media Party’ nominees.
Note: Posting support of a particular Cabinet is Free, voting on the 6th May will cost £1 - so it’s important to remind the people in your network(s) to cast their vote – make everyone count…!
Cabinet Submission Deadline
Deadline for submission of your Cabinet is the 23rd April at 12am and all Cabinets submitted will have their own page hosted on socialmedia.uk.net where people can post their support of your proposed Cabinet. The top 5 Cabinets with the most support will be put forward to the public vote on 6th May (in line with the UK General Election)
Then you have up until the 5th May to rally support of your Cabinet by using any means possible (e.g. Twitter, Facbook, Linkedin tc…)
All this activity will take place on http://www.socialmedia.uk.net and will be up and running on Monday 12th April.
Let’s make every vote count…
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Lee, mate- this is genius! From small ideas and jokey comments comes……..
Crikey… I agree with Robbie….what a fandabedozee idea!! I already have half of my cabinet sorted… Consisting of the presenters from Rainbow, and Cannon and Ball…..ha ha ha…
Seriously, let's hope everyone get's involved, it's a great way to raise awareness and some funds for some very lucky charities. Come on everyone, take part…you will enjoy it!!
Lee, fantastic idea mate. Need a bit of time to fully populate but thinking Lee Smallwood (@leesmallwood) for Prime Minister, Paul Weston (@paulweston33) for work & pensions & ofcourse Roberta Ward (@robertaward) for housing ;o)
Well you guys are so inspirational
Thanks Paul. (@paulweston33) Hopefully – if enough people people get behind it, it would be quite a lot of fun.
Also, I'll be using Radian6 to monitor the 'ripple effects' as well
excellent- I like that team!
You could be energy and climate change Rob! me in housing and you in energy- now we could actually get something done….or you could be transport! ha! now there is an idea…@SuButcher could be minister for economic development….
excellent- I like that team!
You could be energy and climate change Rob! me in housing and you in energy- now we could actually get something done….or you could be transport! ha! now there is an idea…@SuButcher could be minister for economic development….
Thanks Rob not sure about me for PM – I'm a shy and retiring person
should be interesting to see if the people in the UK that are vocal about politics/political parties engage with this project … Fingers crossed they do and hopefully use the info in the General Election blog to help create awareness for the project i.e. Look where the conversations are taking place online and interact with people there… Let's see how it goes…
Hashtag will be #S4aC (search 4 a cabinet)
I like Richard Branson for Business and Innovation minister. Smallwood, you are not shy and retiring.( only in your dreams perhaps.)
Aha Roberta (@robertaward) like your thinking! What a dynamic team we'd all be
(@robertaward) I think @richardbranson would be great – let's see what people think … (and I am shy and retiring
…(!)
Hi Daniel. Thanks for the feedback and you’re right that Labour are getting less mainstream news – although I suspect that will change when I post today’s reviews after Stuart MacLennan’s sacking.
Love your idea of turning the positives into votes – expect to see that from Monday
Cheers
Lee
Lee this is a fantastic idea. If I had to do it for “real”, I'd get all the people who I would like with me in a cabinet in one room and then ask for each job who would like it. For example we all would assume that Richard Branson (on of my choices also) would want the Job of Business at Innovation minister but that might not be his choice.
Get the key people doing jobs that they want to do, not jobs that have been selected for them, after all that's what I'd want
Roy, that is an interesting idea, one would assume that RB would want to do business and innovation as he is doing it for a living.
However, just because someone 'wants' to do something does not mean they would be any good at it. Surley they would need to be 'fit fir purpose too?'
Assuming that he would want to do it to me is the problem. Certain individuals with the right leadership skills can achieve a wide range of things. Roberta I take your point that just because somebody wants to do something it does not mean they are any good at it, but I think it increases the odds of them doing a good job.
Hi Roy and thank you. And I hope you submit a 'cabinet'
I think this is an opportunity to see what people would like to do… i.e. would the person want the job? If we were to put a person forward for a particular position they have every right to say that they would a) prefer a different role or b) choose not to be put forward at all…!
Ultimately, which ever position they went into the people's vote would decide
Crowdsourcing a political cabinet (if it were for real) would, I'm sure, produce somne interesting results and ideas – afterall imagine if the government was an Open Source project 1000s all working on policies and procedures to make them better…!
Hi Robbie. There would need to be a way of verifying what they's done. But people would rally around them in support of their past work/performance?
Hi Roy. I think you're right that some people, no matter what they do, excel. However, I believe we all have 'traits' – skills and abilities – that are more natural and therefore we do better and with more passion. And I think that the passion that people see in us is infectious and people buy into that more than anything.