PM and Cabinet Flashcards
1
Q
Who was PM in 2019?
A
Boris
2
Q
What was Boris’ majority?
A
80
3
Q
What was Boris’ relationship with his party?
A
Some very loyal (Rees Mogg) - back bench rebellions and vote of no confidence
4
Q
What was Boris’ relations with Cabinet?
A
10 resignations - large use of SPADs - Cummings
5
Q
Why did Boris resign?
A
Pincher
6
Q
When was May PM?
A
2017-2019
7
Q
What was her party relationship?
A
50.5% in the first ballot, 60.5% in the second
8
Q
What was May’s style of prime ministership?
A
Presidential - dogmatic with cabinet
9
Q
Why did May resign?
A
Brexit
10
Q
When did Blair become PM?
A
1997
11
Q
What was Blair’s majority?
A
177 in 1997, 165 in 2001, 64 in 2005
12
Q
What was Blair’s style of prime ministership?
A
Sofa-government
13
Q
Why did Blair resign?
A
Make way for Brown
14
Q
When was Thatcher PM?
A
1979-1990
15
Q
What was Thatcher’s majority?
A
44 in 1979, 144 in 1983 and 102 in 1987
16
Q
What was Thatcher’s style of prime ministership?
A
Presidential af
17
Q
Why did Thatcher resign?
A
Challenge to her leadership
18
Q
What is collective responsibility?
A
Cabinet unable to publicly disagree with the decisions made in cabinet meetings
19
Q
Reasons for ministerial resignations?
A
Forced resignation - bad public opinion
Incompetency
Breaking ministerial code
Scapegoat
20
Q
When did Sir Thomas Dugdale resign?
A
1954
21
Q
Why did Sir Thomas Dugdale resign?
A
Crichel Down Affair
22
Q
What was the Crichel Down Affair?
A
Report criticised his department for mishandling the compulsory purchase and subsequent re-letting of 725 acres of farmland in Crichel Down.
23
Q
When did Iain Duncan Smith resign?
A
2016
24
Q
Why did IDS resign?
A
Cuts to the welfare budget had gone too far - cuts should come from reducing benefits for better off elders
25
Why are cabinet ministers appointed?
Expertise, nepotism, party support, appease opponents, ideological reasons, diversity, loyalty
26
Why was Ben Wallace made Secretary of State for Defence in 2019?
Military experience and friend of Boris - ran his campaign
27
Why was Suella Braverman made Home Secretary in 2022?
Appease the right wing of the party
28
Why is Gove a cabinet member?
Gets things done
29
What do ministers run?
Departments - have more power over policy details
30
What is a PM unlikely to do?
Micro-manage senior ministers.
31
Why was Gavin Williamson sacked in 2019?
Leaking details to the press from a National Security Council meeting.
32
Who refused to be moved?
Jeremy Hunt - got a promotion
33
What are cabinet meetings?
Debates and discussion for the PM to gauge opinions.
34
How often are cabinet meetings?
Once a week
35
What is a ministers biggest weapon?
Resignation on their own accord
36
What does much of the PM's power depend on?
Circumstance and context - success brings authority, failures can cause disaster for the most self-assured prime ministers
37
What can a PM mould?
Cabinets of Compliance
38
What can former ministers form?
Internal opposition on the backbenches.
39
What is rubber stamping?
A formality where policy is not discussed
40
What impacts a PM's success?
Party support
Cabinet ministers
PMQ performance
Parliamentary arithmetic
Leader of the Opposition
PM's character
41
What is presidentialism?
The running of a country where there is an individual/ very small group is in change.
PM has a higher profile than other cabinet ministers - stands apart - started with Blair - had lots of advisors.
42
What has the role of PM morphed into?
Far more autocratic and towering figure
43
What was Blair's sofa government?
Informal chats involving few ministers and the PM
44
Who were the Quad?
Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Alexander
45
What was Thatcher criticised for?
Intolerant and overbearring
46
How many SPADs were in Boris' executive?
108
47
What is the role of the executive?
Initiate and implement policy
Finance and Spending
Prerogative powers
48
Where are prerogative powers derived from?
The crown
49
What is the structure of the executive?
Prime minister, cabinet, government departments, arms length bodies
50
What does the Private Office do?
Administrative support - paper and information that is delivered to the PM and makes sure they are briefed on the relevant information before a cabinet meeting
51
What does the Policy unit do?
Gives independent policy advice and monitors government departments to make sure they are working towards the goals of the PM.
52
What does the Press Office do?
Work with the media and the press to make sure the media has the government's views on various matters.
53
What does the Political Office do?
Manages links with the parliamentary and national government, trying to keep MPs on side.
54
What should happen in constitutional theory with policy?
Policy decisions should be approved by the cabinet, rather than by the Prime Minister alone.
55
What are policy decisions?
Binding on all government ministers
56
What is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancatser?
Cabinet office - manages royal estates, lead the Cabinet Office, co-ordinate policy.
57
What can the PM create?
Cabinet Committees and Sub-committees - relevant cabinet ministers work together on specific policy areas.
58
Example of a Cabinet Committee under May
National Security Council
59
Example of a Sub-committee under May
Cyber Sub-committee
60
What are ad hoc/ inter-ministerial groups?
Flexible gatherings of only a subset of a committees membership to address a specific question.
61
When did inter - ministerial groups become controversial and why?
Under Thatcher for taking decisions that were not always referred to or approved by cabinet committees.
62
What does the Cabinet Office do?
Supports the work of the PM and Cabinet
63
How many members of staff in the Cabinet office?
10,000
64
What does Collective Government do?
Coordinates the development and implementation of polices that cut across departments.
65
Who are parliamentary private secretaries?
Unpaid advisors who are considered part of the payroll vote and are expected to vote with the government.
66
How many departments are there (2021)?
23
67
Who appoints the civil service?
Crown
68
What do the civil service do?
Provide administrative and professional support to the government.
69
Where do the Civil Service work?
Work in various government departments, agencies and non-department public bodies.
70
Who is the Cabinet Secretary?
Most senior civil servant - runs Cabinet Office and acts as a senior advisor
71
What are the Civil Service?
Permanent, impartial, anonymous, accountable to ministers, appointed on merit.
72
How many SPADs can a Cabinet minister have?
2
73
What are SPADs?
Temporary and partisan advisors, loyal to the party in government.
74
Who are executive agencies?
Business units that are legally part of a department but have separate management.
75
What do Executive Agencies do?
Perform specific functions services determined by the department
76
Example of an Executive Agency
Standards and testing agency - sets tests used from early years to ks2
77
What are non-departmental public bodies?
Established by departments but are legally separate - no civil servants. Operate at arms-length - usually to avoid political interference.
78
Example of a non-departmental public body
Student Loan Company - administers loans to uni students.
79
What is a non-ministerial department?
Departments headed by civil servants and board members, rather than ministers.
80
What do non-ministerial departments do?
Have more control over policies and budgets - often accountable to parliament
81
Example of a non-ministerial department?
Ofsted - inspects and regulates schools.
82
How many civil servants are there
Over 468,000
83
How many paid ministers are there?
109
84
How many agencies are there?
414
85
How many non-ministerial departments are there?
20
86
Where is most policy made?
Government departments
87
What do ministers use to test the waters of policies?
Paper Stage
88
Who do ministers get help from?
SPADs, civil servants and lobbyists
89
What are the prerogative powers?
Appoint and dismiss ministers
Make Treaties
Declare war/ deploy military
issue and withdraw passports
90
Example of Prerogative powers being used
2018 Air Strike on Syria
91
What power does the PM have?
Power of Patronage
92
Benefit of having a balanced cabinet?
Keep all sections of the party happy
93
Benefit of not having a balanced cabinet?
Easier to control - Blair and Thatcher did this
94
Who was silenced by being a member of cabinet?
Boris and Milliband
95
Who did Brown promote (close friend)?
Ed Balls
96
Who represented Brexiteers in May's cabinet?
David Davies
97
Who represented Old Labour in Blair's cabinet?
John Prescott
98
Who had experience in May and Johnson's cabinets?
Sajid Javid
99
Who had expertise in Brown's government?
Yvette Cooper
100
Who was simply too good to leave out of Brown's government?
Peter Mandelson
101
How has prime ministership changed?
Become more presidential - Thatcher, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May and Johnson have all tried to be presidential - a variety of successes on that front.
102
When did Boris Johnson resign as Foreign secretary?
2018
103
Why did Boris Johnson resign?
Disagreed with May's Brexit deals - collective responsibility
104
Why did Robin Cook resign?
Disagreed with the Iraq war - collective responsibility
105
When did Cook resign?
2003
106
When did Amber Rudd resign?
2018
107
Why did Rudd resign?
Lied to a Select Committee about targets for the number of illegal immigrants removed from the UK - departmental/personal
108
Why did Andrew Mitchell resign?
Insulting a policeman at Downing Street – swearing and calling policeman a ‘pleb’ - personal
109
When did Mitchell resign?
2012
110
When did Mandelson resign?
2001
111
Why did Mandelson resign?
Used influence to obtain a British passport for Hinduja brothers (very rich Indian businessmen)
112
What is cabinet government?
Cabinet being the main policy making body
113
What is cabinet government described as by Bagehot?
Constitutional Model
114
What is the PM in a cabinet model?
Primus inter pares
115
Examples of Cabinet Government
Demise of Thatcher in the 1990s due to Howe
May and her issues with Brexit
116
What is prime ministerial government?
Cabinet is dominated by the PM - PM is the predominant figure with the core executive
117
What has caused the rise of prime ministerial government?
Rise of strong, disciplined parties
Creation of the civil service
Growth in power and scale of big government
Media leading to personality politics
118
What is the core executive model?
Power is shared between key players who are mutually dependent
119
Who are the main actors in an executive model?
Senior civil servants, ministers and the prime minister
120
What is the British Presidency?
Michael Foley - Blair and Thatcher more like presidents - use advisors more than cabinet colleagues in decision making
121
What is the compromise model?
Argues that the nature of UK government is dependent
122
What are the three factors dictating the model of UK government?
Style of PM
Circumstance
Party
123
What is civil service permanence?
Civil servants serve whoever is in power. After the next election, the head of the Civil Service, the Cabinet Secretary, will serve whoever is prime minister and give him or her advice.
124
What is civil service neutrality?
Civil servants must not allow their own political beliefs or bias to inform the advice they give
125
What is civil service anonymity?
Their advice is confidential. Ministers are to blame if things go wrong. They must not speak to the media about their conversations with ministers.
126
What is meritocracy?
They are not political appointments and are appointed on merit through competitive exams and interviews.
127
Who was the first PM?
Robert Walpole
128
What does primus inter pares mean?
First among equals
129
What does the PM have to make policy?
Mandate - carries the authority to govern through winning elections
130
What is a popular mandate?
Electorate votes for MP - but party leader has an increasing influence - can claim to have a popular mandate
131
Who has a weak mandate?
Those who take office between elections - Gordon Brown
132
Who is leader of parliament?
Prime Minister - can claim authority in the House of Commons
133
How many ministers did Macmillan fire in 1962?
24
134
How many SPADs did Major have?
8
135
How many SPADs did Blair have?
50
136
Who is Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces?
PM
137
What did Cameron enforce?
No Fly Zone in Libya 2011
138
What is a bilateral meeting?
Meetings between two people, usually used to refer to meetings between the prime minister and a particular government minister
139
What is bureaucracy?
A term meaning 'rule by officials', often used to refer to the civil servants who implement government policy
140
What is a kitchen Cabinet?
Term used to describe small, informal meetings between the Prime Minister and select ministers, advisors and officials
141
What is Open Government?
The idea that the working of government should be made more transparent. and easier for parliament and the public to see and scrutinise
142
What are Osmotherly Rules?
Civil service guidelines, limiting the evidence they give to select committees, designed to protect their impartiality, anonymity, and confidentiality
143
What is a Parliamentary Under-secretary
Government ministers who are junior to ministers and are not members of cabinet
144
What is the Permanent Under-secretary of state
The most senior civil servant within a government department, responsible for running the department on a
day-to-day basis
145
What is Spatial Leadership?
Theory by Michael Floey - PMs put distance between themselves and the party to gain supprt.
