Английская Википедия:Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office

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Chief Mouser to the Cabinet OfficeШаблон:Efn is the title of the official resident cat at 10 Downing Street, the residence and executive office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in London. There has been a resident cat in the British government employed as a mouser and pet since the 16th century, although modern records date only to the 1920s. Despite other cats having served Downing Street, the first one to be given the official title of chief mouser by the British government was Larry in 2011. Other cats have been given this title affectionately, usually by the British press.

In 2004, a study found that voters' perceptions of the chief mouser were not completely above partisanship.

History

There is evidence of a cat in residence in the English government dating back to the reign of Henry VIII, when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey placed his cat by his side while acting in his judicial capacity as Lord Chancellor. Official records, however, released into the public domain on 4 January 2005 as part of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 only date back to 3 June 1929, when A.E. Banham at the Treasury authorised the Office Keeper "to spend 1dШаблон:Efn a day from petty cash towards the maintenance of an efficient cat". In April 1932, the weekly allowance was increased to 1s 6d.Шаблон:Efn By the 21st century, the mouser was costing £100 per annum. The cats do not necessarily belong to the prime minister in residence, and it is rare for the chief mouser's term of office to coincide with that of a prime minister. The cat with the longest known tenure at Downing Street is Peter III, who served for over 16 years under five different prime ministers: Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home.

The post has been held by Larry since 2011, the first to be given the title officially. The departure of the previous incumbent, Sybil, was in January 2009. Sybil, who began her tenure on 11 September 2007, was the first mouser for ten years following the retirement of her predecessor Humphrey in 1997. Sybil was owned by the then chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, who lived in 10 Downing Street while the then prime minister, Gordon Brown, lived in the larger 11 Downing Street. It was reported that Sybil did not stay in London, and was returned to Scotland to live with a friend of the Darlings. Sybil died on 27 July 2009.

In January 2011, rats were seen in Downing Street, "scurrying across the steps of Number 10 Downing Street for the second time during a TV news report," according to ITN. There being no incumbent chief mouser at that time, the prime minister's spokesman said there were "no plans" for a cat to be brought in to tackle the problem; however, the following day, newspapers reported that the spokesman had said there was a "pro-cat faction" within Downing Street, leading to speculation that a replacement might indeed be brought in to deal with the problem. On 14 February 2011, it was reported that a cat called "Larry" had been brought in to address the problem. The London Evening Standard reported that the cat had been selected by David Cameron and his family, from those at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

Chief mousers in the past have overlapped, or been phased in, though the position can and has remained vacant for extended periods of time. Larry is the only chief mouser listed on the official website for Number 10.

Partisanship study

In 2004, Robert Ford, a political scientist at the University of Manchester, reported on a YouGov survey on partisan reactions to the Downing Street cats. Participants in the survey were shown a picture of Humphrey, the chief mouser appointed by Margaret Thatcher, and told that he was either Thatcher's cat or Tony Blair's cat. Affinity for the cat divided along partisan lines: Conservative voters liked the cat far more when they were told he was Thatcher's and Labour voters liked the cat far more when they were told he was Blair's. Ford concludes that partisanship shapes reactions to everything a politician does, however trivial, similar to the halo effect (and a reverse "forked tail effect") observed by psychologists.

List of chief mousers

Файл:Larry the Cat - May 2011.jpg

Larry in 2011 with Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama

Name	Began tenure	Ended tenure	Prime Minister(s)	Refs
Rufus of England (popularly nicknamed "Treasury Bill")	1924	Шаблон:Circa 1930	Ramsay MacDonald
Peter	1929Шаблон:Efn	1946	Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee
Munich Mouser	1937–40	1943	Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill
Nelson	1940s		Winston Churchill
Peter II	1946	1947	Clement Attlee
Peter III	1947	1964	Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home
Peta	1964	Шаблон:Circa 1976	Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath
Wilberforce	1973	1987	Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher
Humphrey	1989	1997	Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair
Sybil	2007	2009	Gordon Brown
Larry	2011	current	David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak
Freya	2012	2014	David Cameron

Timeline

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 from: 1924 till: 1924 color:labour
 from: 1924 till: 1929 color:conservative 
 from: 1929 till: 1930 color:labour text:"Treasury Bill"
bar:Peter
 from: 1929 till: 1929 color:conservative
 from: 1929 till: 1935 color:labour
 from: 1935 till: 1945 color:conservative 
 from: 1945 till: 1946 color:labour text:"Peter"
bar:MMouser
 from: 1937 till: 1943 color:conservative text:"Munich Mouser"
bar:Nelson
 from: 1940 till: 1944 color:conservative text:"Nelson"
bar:PeterII
 from: 1946 till: 1947 color:labour text:"Peter II"
bar:PeterIII
 from: 1947 till: 1951 color:labour 
 from: 1951 till: 1964 color:conservative text:"Peter III"
bar:Peta
 from: 1964 till: 1964 color:conservative 
 from: 1964 till: 1970 color:labour 
 from: 1970 till: 1974 color:conservative
 from: 1974 till: 1976 color:labour text:"Peta"
bar:Wilberforce
 from: 1973 till: 1974 color:conservative
 from: 1974 till: 1979 color:labour 
 from: 1979 till: 1987 color:conservative text:"Wilberforce"
bar:Humphrey
 from: 1989 till: 1997 color:conservative 
 from: 1997 till: 1997 color:labour text:"Humphrey"
bar:Sybil
 from: 2007 till: 2009 color:labour text:"Sybil"
bar:Larry
 from: 2011 till: 2023 color:conservative text:"Larry"
bar:Freya
 from: 2012 till: 2014 color:conservative text:"Freya"

</timeline>

See also

• Gladstone (cat), chief mouser to HM Treasury since 2016
• Palmerston (cat), former chief mouser to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office
• Tibs the Great, the British Post Office's former "number one cat"

Lists

• Canadian Parliamentary Cats
• List of individual cats
• Pets of Vladimir Putin
• United States presidential pets

Further reading

• Шаблон:Cite book
• Шаблон:Cite web
• Шаблон:Cite web

External links

• Gov.UK Prime Minister
• 10 Downing Street official website
• Official Chief Mouser Page at 10 Downing Street Web Site