An interesting way to quit your job, old chap

[underpants]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040908/ap_on_fe_st/britain_non_job&e=1

LONDON - Once elected to the House of Commons, one does not resign. But lawmakers can escape to a non-existent job.

Exercising a quaint Parliamentary rule, former Trade Secretary and Labor Party lawmaker Peter Mandelson successfully applied Wednesday to become steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

Northstead is under water, and the appointment entails no duties. But it did free Mandelson to take up his new job as a commissioner of the European Union (news - web sites).


Those who choose to do so usually apply to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what is known as "an office of profit under the Crown," which makes them ineligible to sit in the House of Commons.


The two moribund offices traditionally used are that of steward and bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham, or of the Manor of Northstead. Once appointed, the lawmaker is disqualified from the Commons.