... is, as every quizzer should know, one of the two ways for an MP to resign his or her seat. Appointment to an "office of profit under the Crown" traditionally disqualified an individual from sitting as an MP. MPs are not legally allowed to resign, so an MP who wished to give up his or her seat would ask to be appointed to such an office – one which no longer has any duties associated with it. This would disqualify him or her from sitting as an MP, and the seat would become vacant.
Offices of profit are no longer disqualifying, but appointment to various specified offices is, and two offices are specified as disqualifying for this purpose. One is the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, and the other is the equivalent post for the Chiltern Hundreds.
After resigning his seat, David Cameron became chairman of the National Citizen Service (NCS) Patrons. The NCS is a Government–funded voluntary personal and social development programme for 15 to 17 year olds in England and Northern Ireland. It was formally announced in 2010 by David Cameron himself, when Prime Minister, as part of the Coalition government's Big Society initiative, and launched in 2011.
In January 2017, Cameron was appointed president of Alzheimer's Research UK, his role being to address misconceptions surrounding dementia and to campaign for medical research funding to tackle the condition.
© Macclesfield Quiz League 2017