Cabinet reshuffles should be decided by the voters, not a clique on the sofa at No 10
By Douglas Carswell Politics Last updated: July 14th, 2014
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/douglascarswellmp/100279612/cabinet-reshuffles-should-be-decided-by-the-voters-not-a-clique-on-the-sofa-at-no-10/

Who's in and who's out? And who gets to decide? (Photo: PA)
Today is not a good day to phone up an MP pretending to be the Downing Street switch board. “Hello, it's Downing Street here. The PM would like a word. Can I put you on hold?”
As rumours of an impending reshuffle swirl around SW1, it only takes the buzz of a mobile phone to set many an MP's heart – and hopes – racing.
With the power to make or break the career of MPs in the hands of a handful of people in Number 10, that phone call could be the defining moment of an MPs career. “Minister for Widgets!? I’d be absolutely delighted, Prime Minister.”
It wasn't always this way.
Until 1918, if the PM wanted to promote a backbench MP, it wasn't what Downing Street thought, but what constituents made of it that mattered. From 1701 until the First World War, any MP invited to join the government had to resign from Parliament, return to their constituency and seek re-election in a by-election. They faced, if you like, a very public confirmation hearing in which local voters were the interview panel.
This meant that the electorate, not some cliquey "sofa gang" in Downing Street, had the final say on who became a minister.
MPs were seen as tribunes of the people, not party apparatchiks. If a backbencher was to become part of the government, they were regarded as changing sides. They needed to seek the permission of those who elected them first.
Britain had, long before the drafting of any American constitution, a separation of powers, which we have only quite recently abandoned.
Once we did, of course, MPs began to answer to those in Westminster with the power to promote them. Parliament has become a poodle ever since. Until we have open primary candidate selection and a right of recall, which would force MPs to answer outward to the voters once again, it will remain that way.
One or two jokers might decide to tease MPs by impersonating the Number 10 switch board today. Perhaps it is the executive branch of government doing the impersonation when it presumes to hold powers that once belonged to the people.