The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United Kingdom and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (May 2010)

The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.

United Kingdom[link]

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The Whips Office[link]

In British politics, the Chief Whip of the governing party in the House of Commons is usually appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury so that the incumbent, who represents the whips in general, has a seat and a voice in the Cabinet. By virtue of holding the office of Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, the Government Chief Whip has an official residence at 12 Downing Street. However, the Chief Whip's office is currently located at 9 Downing Street.^[1]

As shown in BBC television series Yes Minister and House of Cards, the Chief Whip can wield a large amount of power over those in their party, up to and including cabinet ministers, being seen to speak at all times with the voice of the Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher was famed for using her Chief Whip as a "cabinet enforcer".

The role of Chief Whip is regarded as secretive, as the Whip is concerned with the discipline of their own party's Members of Parliament and never appears on television or radio in their capacity as whip. Whips in the House of Commons do not speak in debates.

The Government Chief Whip is assisted by the Deputy Chief Whip, Whips, and Assistant Whips. In order to give them a salary for what is in essence a party office, the government whips are appointed to positions in HM Treasury and in the Royal Household under the Lord Steward of The Household. The whips are not active in either of these departments. The Deputy Chief Whip is Treasurer of HM Household, the next two Whips are Comptroller of HM Household and Vice-Chamberlain of HM Household, and the remaining Whips are Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. Assistant Whips, and Whips of opposition parties, generally do not receive such appointments.

The current Government Whips in the Commons are^[2]:

• Chief Whip (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury): The Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP (Con)
• Deputy Chief Whip (Treasurer of HM Household) - John Randall MP (Con)
• Deputy Chief Whip (Comptroller of HM Household) - Alistair Carmichael MP (LD)
• Government Whip (Vice Chamberlain of HM Household) - Mark Francois MP (Con)
• Junior Lords of the Treasury:
  • Michael Fabricant MP (Con)
  • Angela Watkinson MP (Con)
  • Jeremy Wright MP (Con)
  • Brooks Newmark MP (Con)
  • James Duddridge MP (Con)
• Assistant Whips:
  • Philip Dunne MP (Con)
  • Stephen Crabb MP (Con)
  • Robert Goodwill MP (Con)
  • Shailesh Vara MP (Con)
  • Bill Wiggin MP (Con)
  • Mark Hunter MP (LD)
  • Jenny Willott MP (LD)
  • Greg Hands MP (Con)

A similar arrangement exists for Whips in the House of Lords. The Government Chief Whip is usually appointed Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, while the Deputy Chief Whip is usually appointed Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard. Other Whips, who are fewer in number due to the decreased importance of party discipline in the Lords, are appointed as Lords in Waiting if men and Baronesses in Waiting if women. As well as their duties as whips, Lords whips speak in the Chamber (unlike Commons whips) to support departmental ministers or act as a spokesperson for a department where there is no Lords minister. The current Lords whips are:

• Chief Whip (Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms): The Rt Hon The Baroness Anelay of St Johns DBE PC (Con)
• Deputy Chief Whip (Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard): The Rt Hon The Lord Shutt of Greetland OBE PC (LD)
• Lords and Baronesses in Waiting:
  • The Earl Attlee (Con)
  • The Lord Astor of Hever (Con)
  • The Lord de Mauley (Con)
  • The Baroness Northover (LD)
  • The Baroness Rawlings (Con)
  • The Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)
  • The Baroness Verma (Con)
  • The Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)

Outside of the government, the Official Opposition Chief Whip in the Commons, like the Leader of the Opposition, receives a stipend in addition to their parliamentary salary, because their additional responsibilities will make them unable to hold down another job.

The whips, although superficially dictatorial, do act as communicators between the backbenchers and the party leadership. Ultimately if backbenchers are unhappy with the leadership's position they can threaten to revolt during a vote and force the leadership to compromise.

While the whip was formally introduced to British politics by the Irish Parliamentary Party under Charles Stewart Parnell in the 1880s, in 1846 the Duke of Wellington advised the new Conservative Party leader Lord Stanley to ensure that his "whippers-in" were personally loyal.

The whip as a party line[link]

In the UK Parliament the importance of a vote is indicated by underlining of items on the "whip", which is the name of the letter the Chief Whip sends to all the MPs in their party at the start of the week. This letter informs them of the schedule for the days ahead, and includes the sentence, "Your attendance is absolutely essential" next to each debate in which there will be a vote. This sentence is underlined one, two or three times depending on the consequences that will be suffered if they do not turn up, hence the origin of the terms one-line whip, two-line whip and three-line whip. The actual direction of their vote is communicated to them in the chamber by hand signals during the division when the time comes (usually after the division bell has been rung). Even though it determines the outcome of the votes crucially far more than the debate, neither these instructions, which are visible to everyone in the chamber, nor the "whip" letter at the start of the week, are recorded in Hansard, as they are considered an internal matter of the political party; indeed, the system exists because any explicit direction to an MP as to how they should vote would technically be a Breach of Parliamentary Privilege.

The consequences for defying the party whip depend on the circumstances and are usually negotiated with the party whip in advance. The party whip's job is to ensure the outcome of the vote, so the situation is different and more important for a party which holds the majority, because if their members obey the whip they can always win. They can make allowances for MPs who are away on important business, whose political circumstances require them to take a particular single issue very seriously, or if there is a mass revolt. Theoretically at least, expulsion from the party is automatically consequent from defying a three-line whip.

An example of this is in the case of John Major's government. Nine conservative Members of Parliament had their whips removed after voting against the government on its stance to the Maastricht Treaty. It was also the only time when MPs who are being whipped were co-operating with the opposite side's whips.

There are some cases in which whips are removed because an issue is a matter of conscience. These include adoption, religion and equal opportunities. The impact of a whip being imposed on a matter of conscience can be damaging for a party leader. One such case was that of Iain Duncan-Smith, who imposed a three-line whip against adoption of children by gay couples. Several Conservative MPs voted against the official party line, and Duncan-Smith's authority was weakened.

Whips can often be brutal to backbenchers to secure their vote, and will resort to a mixture of promises, threats, blackmail and extortion^[3] to force an unpopular vote. A good whip will know secrets and incriminating information about Members of Parliament. A whip should know major figures in an MP's local constituency party and the MP's agent. There have been cases where Members of Parliament were wheeled from far afield to vote for the government on a crucial vote. Former MP Joe Ashton remembered a case from the dying days of James Callaghan's government:

"I remember the famous case of Leslie Spriggs, the then-Member for St. Helens. We had a tied vote and he was brought to the House in an ambulance having suffered a severe heart attack. The two Whips went out to look in the ambulance and there was Leslie Spriggs laid there as though he was dead. I believe that John Stradling Thomas said to Joe Harper, 'How do we know that he is alive?' So he leaned forward, turned the knob on the heart machine, the green light went around, and he said, 'There, you've lost—it's 311.' That is an absolutely true story. It is the sort of nonsense that used to happen. No one believes it, but it is true."^[4]

For a minister, the consequences for defying the party whip are absolute: they are dismissed from their job immediately, if they have not already resigned, and return to being a backbencher. Sometimes their votes in Parliament are called the "payroll vote", because they can be taken for granted. The consequences for a back-bencher can include the lack of future promotion to a government post, a reduction of party campaigning effort in his or her constituency during the next election, deselection by his or her local party activists, or, in extreme circumstances, "withdrawal of the whip" and expulsion from the party.

Lists of Chief Whips by party[link]

• Conservative Chief Whip
• Labour Chief Whip
• Liberal Democrats Chief Whip
• Ulster Unionist Chief Whip
• For a list of former Government Chief Whips, see Secretary to the Treasury#Parliamentary Secretaries to the Treasury, 1830–present

Other jurisdictions[link]

There are also Chief Whips in:

• Australia
• Bangladesh
• Canada – Chief Government Whip (Canada)
• Ghana
• India
• Ireland
• Malaysia – Chief Whip (Malaysia)
• Namibia
• New Zealand
• Pakistan
• Scotland - Minister for Parliamentary Business and Chief Whip
• Sri Lanka – Chief Whip (Sri Lanka)
• South Africa
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Uganda

The United States uses the similar terms, majority whip and minority whip.

See also[link]

• Whip (politics)
• The Public Whip

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

v t e Downing Street Buildings 9 Downing Street (Chief Whip's Office) · 10 Downing Street · 11 Downing Street · 12 Downing Street · Cabinet Office · Foreign and Commonwealth Office · Privy Council Office Residence First Lord of the Treasury (Prime Minister) · Second Lord of the Treasury (Chancellor of the Exchequer) · Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Government Chief Whip) · Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office Prime Minister's Office Chief of Staff · Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister · Prime Minister's Strategy Unit · Number 10 Policy Unit Cabinet Office Deputy Prime Minister · Minister for the Cabinet Office · Cabinet Secretary · Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary · National Security Council · Joint Intelligence Committee · Parliamentary Counsel Office · Head of the Home Civil Service · Government Cabinet · Cabinet Committees · Cabinet Office Briefing Room · Civil Contingencies Secretariat Other 1991 Downing Street Mortar Attack

Ian William Richardson CBE (7 April 1934 – 9 February 2007) was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor.

Early life[link]

Richardson was born in Edinburgh, the son of Margaret (née Drummond) and John Richardson. He was educated in the city, at Balgreen Primary School, Tynecastle High School and George Heriot's School.^[1][2] He first appeared on stage at the age of fourteen, in an amateur production of A Tale of Two Cities. The director encouraged his talent, but warned that he would need to lose his Scottish accent to progress as an actor. His mother arranged elocution lessons and he became a stage manager with the semi-professional Edinburgh People's Theatre. After National Service in the Army (part of which he spent as an announcer and drama director with the British Forces Broadcasting Service) he obtained a place at the College of Dramatic Arts in Glasgow. After a period at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), of which he was a founding member, from 1960 to 1975. ^[3][4]

Stage work[link]

Although he later achieved fame in film and television work such as House of Cards (1990), Ian Richardson was primarily a classical stage actor.^[5] His first engagement after training was with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where his performance of Hamlet led to an offer of a place with the RSC. He was a versatile member of the company for more than fifteen years, playing villainy, comedy and tragedy to equal effect. He was The Herald in Peter Brook's production of Marat/Sade in London in 1964; in the New York transfer he took the lead role of Marat (and so became the first actor to appear nude on the Broadway stage),^[1] a performance he repeated for 1967 film version. In the 1969 season his roles included Pericles in Terry Hands's production.

In 1972, he appeared in the musical Trelawney, with which the Bristol Old Vic reopened after its refurbishment. It proved a great success, transferring to London, first to Sadler's Wells and later to The Savoy. Richardson played the hero, Tom Wrench, a small-part player who wants to write about "real people". He had a song, "Walking On", lamenting his lack of scope in the company, in which he explains that as a "walking gentleman" he will be forever "walking on", whilst Rose Trelawney will go on to be a star.^[6]

Richardson specialised in Shakespearean roles.^[4] In 1974, he played Iachimo in John Barton's RSC production of Cymbeline. Richardson's Richard II (alternating the parts of the king and Bolingbroke with Richard Pasco) in 1974, and repeated in New York and London in the following year, set a standard unequalled for a generation:^[1] more than thirty years later notable performances of King Richard were still being compared with the production.^[7]

A notable Shakespearean cameo role was a brief performance as Hamlet in the gravedigger scene as part of episode six, 'Protest and Communication', of Kenneth Clark's Civilisation television series in 1969. This was performed at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire with Patrick Stewart as Horatio and Ronald Lacey as the gravedigger.^[8]

On leaving the RSC, he played Professor Henry Higgins in the 1976 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady and received the Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination. He also appeared on Broadway in 1981 in the original production of Edward Albee's play Lolita, an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's book, but this is not regarded as having been a success.

In 2002 Richardson joined Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Donald Sinden and Dame Diana Rigg in an international tour of The Hollow Crown.^[4] A Canadian tour substituted Alan Howard for Jacobi and Vanessa Redgrave for Rigg. He also appeared in The Creeper by Pauline Macaulay at the Playhouse Theatre in London, and on tour. His last stage appearance was in 2006 as Sir Epicure Mammon in The Alchemist at the National Theatre in London.

Films[link]

He played one musical role on film - the Priest in Man of La Mancha, the 1972 screen version of the Broadway musical. In 1987, he played a variation on this role, when he portrayed the Bishop of Motopo in the non-musical telefilm Monsignor Quixote, based on Graham Greene's modernized take on the Quixote story.

He made many film appearances, including Brazil (1985), Dark City (1998), Polonius in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), wine dealer Sir Mason Harwood in The Year Of The Comet (1992), the French ambassador in M. Butterfly (1993), Martin Landau's butler in B*A*P*S (1997), Cruella de Vil's solicitor, Mr. Torte, in the live action film 102 Dalmatians (2000) and From Hell (2001). He also played the Judge in the family-based 2005 film, The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby. His final film appearance was as Judge Langlois in Becoming Jane, released shortly after his death.

Television[link]

During his career Richardson gave many memorable television performances. Though certainly not unknown before taking the part, his first major role was his appearance as Bill Haydon ("Tailor") in the BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979). In the 1980s he became well-known as Major Neuheim in the award-winning Private Schulz, and more notably Sir Godber Evans in Channel 4's adaptation of Porterhouse Blue. He played Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1986 television serial, Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy, and in 1988 he played Edward Spencer, the eccentric and oblivious English landowner in 1920s' Ireland in Troubles, from J. G. Farrell's award-winning novel.

Richardson's most acclaimed television role was as Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC adaptation of Michael Dobbs's House of Cards trilogy.^[4] He won the BAFTA Best Television Actor Award for his portrayal in the first series, House of Cards (1990), and was nominated for both of the sequels To Play the King (1993) and The Final Cut (1995). He also received another BAFTA film nomination for his role as Falkland Islands governor Sir Rex Hunt in the 1992 film An Ungentlemanly Act, and played another corrupt politician, Michael Spearpoint, British Director of the European Economic Community in the ambitious satirical series The Gravy Train and The Gravy Train Goes East. He narrated the 1996 BBC docudrama A Royal Scandal.

In 1999, he became known to a young audience as the titular character Stephen Tyler in both series of the family drama The Magician's House (1999–2000). Following this he played Lord Groan in the major BBC production Gormenghast (2000), and later that year he starred in the BBC production Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes (2000–2001) (also screened in PBS's Mystery! series in the US), playing Arthur Conan Doyle's mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell, a role he welcomed as an opportunity to play a character from his native Edinburgh.^[5] He had earlier played Sherlock Holmes in two 1980s television versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four. In 2003 he once more returned to fantasy in the recurring role of the villainous Canon Black in the short-lived BBC cult series Strange.

In 2005, he took on the role of a curiously detached Chancellor in the highly successful TV drama Bleak House. In that year he appeared in ITV's main Christmas drama The Booze Cruise 2, playing Marcus Foster, a slimy upper class businessman forced to spend time with "the lower classes". He returned to this role for a sequel the following Easter. In June 2006 he was made an honorary Doctor of the University of Stirling. The honour was conferred on him by the university's chancellor, fellow actor Dame Diana Rigg. In December 2006, Richardson starred in Sky One's two-part adaptation of the Terry Pratchett novel Hogfather. He voiced the main character of the novel, Death, who steps in to take over the role of the Father Christmas-like Hogfather. The DVD of that miniseries, released shortly after his death, opens with a dedication to his memory.

He was also familiar to American television viewers as the man in the Rolls-Royce who asks "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" in commercials for this Dijon mustard. During the last fifteen years of his life Richardson appeared five times on television acting opposite his son, Miles Richardson, though this was usually with one or other in a minor role. In ITV's Marple, an uncredited Miles played Ian Richardson's son.

Death[link]

Ian Richardson died in his sleep of a heart attack on the morning of 9 February 2007, aged 72. According to his agent, he had not been ill and had in fact been due to start filming an episode of Midsomer Murders the following week.^[9] He was survived by his wife, Maroussia Frank, an actress, and two sons, one of whom, Miles, is an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His widow and his son Miles placed his ashes in the foundations of the auditorium of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford during its renovations in 2008.^[10]

Dame Helen Mirren dedicated her 2006 Best Actress BAFTA award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen to Ian Richardson. While conducting her acceptance speech, she said that without his support early in her career she might not have been so successful,^[11][12] before breaking down and leaving the stage.

Honours[link]

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1989.

Selected filmography[link]

• Marat/Sade (1968)
• Man of La Mancha (1972)
• King of the Wind (1989)
• The Year Of The Comet (1992)
• Words Upon the Window Pane (1994)
• The Treasure Seekers (1996)
• Dark City (1998)
• From Hell (2001)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ian Richardson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ian Richardson at the Internet Movie Database
• Ian Richardson's performances in the Theatre Archive, University of Bristol
• The Guardian – Actor Ian Richardson dies
• The Guardian – obituary
• BBC – Obituary: Ian Richardson
• Ian Richardson Tribute

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

Zainul Abedin জয়নুল আবেদিন
Zainul Abedin in 1955
Born	(1914-12-29)December 29, 1914 Kishoreganj, East Bengal, British Raj (now Bangladesh)
Died	May 28, 1976(1976-05-28) (aged 61)
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Field	Painting

Zainul Abedin (Bengali: জয়নুল আবেদিন; December 29, 1914 – May 28, 1976) was a Bengali painter. He got the break through in 1944 with his Famine Series paintings of 1943. After partition he moved to Pakistan; and finally when Bangladesh was created in 1971, he was rightly considered^{[by whom?]} the founding father of Bangladeshi art. He was an artist of exceptional^{[peacock term]} talent and international repute. Like many of his contemporaries, his paintings on the Bengal famine of 1940s is probably his most characteristic work. In Bangladesh, he is referred^{[by whom?]} with honor as Shilpacharya (Great Teacher of the Arts) in Bangladesh for his artistic and visionary qualities.

Early life and education[link]

Zainul Abedin was born in Kishoreganj, East Bengal on December 29, 1914. Much of his childhood was spent near the scenic banks of the Brahmaputra river. Brahmaputra would later appear in many of his paintings and be a source of inspiration all throughout his career. Many of his works framed Brahmaputra and a series of watercolors that Zainul did as his tribute to the Brahmaputra river earned him the Governor's Gold Medal in an all-India exhibition in 1938.This was the first time when he came under spotlight and this award gave Abedin the confidence to create his own visual style.

In 1933, Abedin was admitted to Calcutta Government Art School in Calcutta. Here for five years he learned British/ European academic style and later he joined the faculty of the same school after his graduation. He was dissatisfied with the orientalist style and the limitations of European academic style and this led him towards realism. He was the pioneer of the modern art movement that took place in Bangladesh. In 1948 he, and with the help of few of his colleagues, founded an art institute in Dhaka. That time there were no art institute present in Dhaka and he was the founding principal of that institute.

After completing his two years of training from an art school in London, he began a new style, "Bengali style", where folk forms with their geometric shapes, sometimes semi-abstract representation, the use of primary colors were the main features. But in all his drawing one thing was prominent that his lack of idea in perspective. Later he realized the limitations of folk art, so he went back to the nature, rural life and the daily struggles of man to combination of art that would be realistic but modern in appearance.

Famine paintings[link]

Zainul Abedin

Jainul Abedin Gallary

Among all the contemporary works of Zainul Abedin, his famine sketches of 1940s are his most remarkable works. He created his famine painting set, which, when exhibited in 1944, brought him even more critical acclaim. The miserable situation of the starving people during the great famine of Bengal in 1943 touched his sensitive heart very deeply. He made his own ink by burning charcoal and using it on cheap ordinary packing paper, he depicted those starving people who were dying by the road side in search of little bit of food. What Zainul did was not just documented the famine, but in his sketches the famine showed its sinister face through the skeletal figures of people fated to die of starvation in a man-made difficulty. Zainul depicted this inhuman story with very human emotions. This drawings became iconic images of human suffering. This sketches helped him find his way in a realistic approach that focused the human suffering, struggle and protest. The Rebel crow marks a high point of that style. This particular brand of realism combines social inquiry and the protest with higher aesthetics.

He was an influential member of the Calcutta Group of progressive artists and was friends with Shahid Suhrawardy and Ahmed Ali of the Progressive Writer's Movement.

Liberation movement[link]

Abedin was involved in the Bangladesh liberation war movement. He was in the forefront of the cultural movement to re-establish the Bengali identity, marginalised by the Pakistan government. In 1969, Abedin painted a scroll using Chinese ink, watercoloor and wax named Nobanno. This was to celebrate the ongoing non-cooperation movement.

Post-independence era[link]

Zainul Abedin's tomb

In 1975, he founded the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon in Narayanganj, and Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala, a gallery of his own works in Mymensingh. Abedin developed lung cancer and died on May 28, 1976 in Dhaka. Two faces was his last painting, completed shortly before his death.

In 1982, 17 of the 70 pictures housed in Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala were stolen. Only 10 were later recovered. His famous painting "Study of a Crow" (Ink Wash) in the collection of Professor Ahmed Ali is listed in the book 'Arts in Pakistan" by Jalaluddin Ahmed, 1952, including an exclusive monologue on him published by FOMMA, Karachi, along with his many Famine Series paintings of 1943.

External links[link]

• Painting by Shilpacharjya Zainul Abedin
• Zainul Abedin @ Gallery Jolrong
• [1]
• [2]
• [3]

Peter Altmaier

Peter Altmaier (born 18 June 1958 in Ensdorf, Saarland) is a German politician. He has been a member of the CDU since 1976. A jurist by profession, he worked for the European Commission from 1990 to 1994. He has been a member of the Bundestag since 1994. Since 2005, he has been a secretary of state in the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany). From 2006 to 2011 Altmaier was president of Europa-Union Deutschland, the German section of the Union of European Federalists. Altmaier replaced Norbert Röttgen as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety on 22 May 2012.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website (German)
• Biography by German Bundestag (German)

v t e The Second Cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel (2009–present) Vice-Chancellor Guido Westerwelle (2009–2011)  · Philipp Rösler (2011–present) Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle (2009–present) Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière (2009–2011)  · Hans-Peter Friedrich (2011–present) Federal Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (2009–present) Federal Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble (2009–present) Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Rainer Brüderle (2009–2011)  · Philipp Rösler (2011–present) Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Franz Josef Jung (2009)  · Ursula von der Leyen (2009–present) Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture Ilse Aigner (2009–present) Federal Minister of Defence Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (2009–2011)  · Thomas de Maizière (2011–present) Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Women and Youth Ursula von der Leyen (2009)  · Kristina Schröder (2009–present) Federal Minister of Health Philipp Rösler (2009–2011)  · Daniel Bahr (2011–present) Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs Peter Ramsauer (2009–present) Federal Minister for the Environment Norbert Röttgen (2009–2012)  · Peter Altmaier (2012–present) Federal Minister of Education and Research Annette Schavan (2009–present) Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel (2009–present) Federal Minister for Special Tasks, Head of the Chancellery Ronald Pofalla (2009–present)

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