Budgets, Exchequers and Prime Ministers

I was triggered to think deeper about a Uniquely Singapore situation. The trigger was when I was reminded that Mr Lee Hsien Loong - Prime Minister of Singapore was also the Minister for Finance. There's an interesting press release from Ministry of Finance that also introduced a Budget 2006 website that offers the public a chance at being the Minster for Finance and learning about the difficult choices that a Minister for Finance has to make.

The unique situation is that Singapore's Prime Minister is also the Minister for Finance.

It's common knowledge to most that Singapore's Parliamentary system follows the Westminster System which is modelled on the United Kingdom system.

The current Minister for Finance in UK is Mr Gordon Brown but he is known as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is automatically the Second Lord of the Treasury with the Prime Minister being assigned the First Lord of the Treasury.

So in Singapore's case, Mr Gordon Brown is Mr Tony Blair and vice versa.


Interesting trivia: The Chancellor of the Exchequer came to be known as such because the British Treasury uses alot of calculating tables which resembled checkered boxes....
Although Mr Tony Blair's official residence as the Prime Minister is No. 10 Downing Street and Mr Gordon Brown's official residence located next door at the bigger No. 11 Downing Street, they have swapped residences because Mr Blair, with a bigger household requires a bigger house.