Template talk:British shadow cabinets/Archive 1

Archive 1

LibDem Shadow Cabinets

As the Lib Dems have formed a number of Shadow Cabinets since 1997 I think in the long run it would be worth including information on them in this template. This could be in the form of extending the template to have something like Official Opposition (for Labour and the Conservatives) and Other Opposition Cabinets or Third Party Opposition Cabinets for the Lib Dems. I'm investigating the possibility of creating articles for the Frontbench teams of Ashdown, Kennedy and Campbell, so there should be quite a few pages to include. Alternatively, Lib Dem Cabinets could be given their own exclusive template. What do others think?

I also think we should include dates for the cabinets. I'll have a go at creating an example and post it here for comment. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 20:51, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Why not wait until the pages are in existence? -Rrius (talk) 20:55, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

That's the plan, but I've prepared an example of the way it could look below. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 21:01, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

I'd prefer something affirmatively stating it is the Liberal Democrat Frontbench both because there are no other parties included (or likely to be included in the future) and because calling it a shadow cabinet is a bit controversial. The table format is ugly (which I can say because I created the table), so it would be great if you know how to make it look better. -Rrius (talk) 21:08, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure how to do that actually. Another idea could be to have a separate template for Lib Dem Frontbench teams under each leader and add it to the appropriate articles. I know they call(ed) themselves a shadow cabinet, but there are differences of opi9nion as to whether or not they actually were. TheRetroGuy (talk) 21:13, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

I think I actually like the idea of a separate Lib Dem Frontbench Teams template. Adding them to this would probably only make things confusing. TheRetroGuy (talk) 21:21, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

I've created {{UK Liberal Democrat Frontbench Teams}} which lists the opposition frontbench teams since 1997. There are now three articles relating to frontbench teams/shadow cabinets, but I'll have to look into the Ashdown one. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 21:52, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Cool, but mostly thanks for the new articles! -Rrius (talk) 22:03, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

No probs. I thought it was only fair we should have the information now they're in government, and there are lists for the Conservatives. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 22:39, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

btw, thanks for tweaking. It looks less messy with the years on the same line. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 22:50, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

What's also needed on all these articles is much better information about the reshuffles over the years. The Hague & IDS articles are a pretty good model of showing who was on the team at any one point (although the actual list of changes could be sharpened) and Major's team was too brief to be reshuffled but for the later ones we've got pretty much just the final team listed. Timrollpickering (talk) 23:02, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

With the LibDem teams, I took the last lineup of each Shadow Cabinet from the main article as a starting point, but need to add an incomplete list template to it as they will require more information. I've found one for Ashdown from November 1998 (see here) and will use it as a basis to create the article when I have an hour or so to spare. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 12:16, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Also, not sure whether to write one for Vince Cable's time as acting Lib Dem leader seeing as there's an article covering Harriet Harman's shadow cabinet. TheRetroGuy (talk) 12:29, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Example

United Kingdom Shadow Cabinets
Official Opposition
	John Major 1997
	William Hague 1997-2001
	Iain Duncan Smith 2001-2003
	Michael Howard 2003-2005
	David Cameron 2005-2010
	Harriet Harman 2010
Lib Dem Frontbench Teams
	Paddy Ashdown 1997-1999
	Charles Kennedy 1999-2006
	Menzies Campbell 2006-2007
	Nick Clegg 2007-2010

Convert to horizontal?

Should this be converted to a horizontal template like {{UK Shadow Cabinet}}? -Rrius (talk) 04:58, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

NEW TEMPLATE

See below...RGloucester (talk) 05:44, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Delete?

I had suggested turning this into a horizontal template, but RGloucester, as noted above, has now created one. Is there any objection to deleting this one? -Rrius (talk) 02:00, 2 June 2012 (UTC)