PM & the executive keywords

Question 1

what is a minister :?

Answer 1

An. MP or a member of the HOL appointed to a position in the govt. , usually exercising specific responsibilities in a department.

Question 2

royal prerogative

Answer 2

a set of powers belonging to the monarch but normally exercised by the PM or Cabinet , such as granting of honours or legal pardons

Question 3

individual responsibility

Answer 3

principle by which ministers are responsible for their personal conduct and for their departements

Question 4

collective responsibility

Answer 4

principle by which the ministers must support cabinet decisions or leave the executive.

Question 5

presidential govt.

Answer 5

an executive dominated by one individual, this may be a president but can also be used to describe a strong, dominant, PM

Question 6

primus inetr pares ?

Answer 6

first amongst equal; meaning that all cabinet members have an equal say in policy discussion but are the primary representatives of the govt. Modern MP’s coudl be argued to be more significant than this, perhaps resembling US presidence in terms of power and influence.

Question 7

give 3 examples of administrative failures?

Answer 7

• 1954 Sir Thomas Dugdale resigns as minister of agriculture over crichel down affair
• stephen Bryers’ (Brit lab. pol. ) political advisor Jo moore leaked emails of ‘ burying’ info on day of Princess margaret’s funeral
• 2019- gavin Williamson sacked by Theresa May after leak about a national security council meeting about tech giant Huawei.

Question 8

Explain the 1954 administrative failure of Sir Thomas Dugdale?

Answer 8

Sir Dugdale’s govt. failed to return land to it’s rightful owner after it had been contemporarily purchased to be a bombing range. although his civil servants were mostly to blame, he resigned saying ‘I ,as a Minister. must take full responsibility for my mistakes and inefficiency of officials in my department’

Question 9

Explain the sacking of Gavin Williamson by May ?

Answer 9

• Williamson leaked info about a secret meeting where 5 ministers had attacked Huawei’s involvement in the 5G telecoms system , but May herself had overridden any objections to this and with compelling evidence against. Williamson he was sacked as replaced by Penny Morduant.

Question 10

give two examples of policy failures/professional disagreements and the response to this ?

Answer 10

• 2002 - Estelle morris resigns over mishap in alevel grade fixing
• 2018 - Amber Rudd resigns over misleading HOC on the windrush scandal

Question 11

explain the 2002 resignation of Estelle morris

Answer 11

in 2002 - she wrote in her resignation letter that she ‘after recent involvements in situations, she felt that she had not been as effective as she should have been for Tony Blair ‘

Question 12

explain the resignation of amber Rudd as Home secretary from May’s cabinet?

Answer 12

2019 - Amber rudd had not been wholly truthful on home office targets fro removing illegal wind- rush immigrants
she resigned claiming in her resignation letter that she had not been sufficiently aware of them leading to unintentional misleading of HOC
effectively shifting the focus from the PM who designed the policy to the minister that enforced it, ‘human shield’

Question 13

give two examples of personal misconduct

Answer 13

2012- Chris huhne - energy sec- forced to resign over media claims that he’d perverted the court of Justice- convicted and sent to prison
2017 - Micheal Fallon- defence secretary - allegations of sexual harassment, inappropriate behaviour + more allegations

Question 14

explain the 2012 Chris Huhne resignation

Answer 14

2012- Huhne forced to resign over media claims that he’d perverted the court of justice by colluding with his former wife, Vicky price so that she took responsibility for his speeding offence, both were convicted and sent to prison for crime .

Question 15

explain the 2017 Micheal Fallon resignation.

Answer 15

Fallon resigned in 2017 as a result of allegations of sexual harassment , inappropriate behaviour as well as his acceptance that in the past his behaviour towards women had fallen below standards that soldiers would need to meet, and so in attempt to limit the political impact of any allegations being publicly made against him , he resigned as Defence sec.

Question 16

give an example of a situation where IMR is not held due to the situation at hand?

Answer 16

• 1992 Chancellor of Exchequer Norman Lamont’s govt failed to prevent the pound from falling lower than its min. level in the European Exchange rate mechanism - since both PM and Lamont were closely involved in the crisis of ‘black Wednesday’ , Lamont refused to resign ; his reason was that the policy which he was pursuing was also that of the PM’s and he claimed that since Major hadn’t resigned neither should he.

Question 17

where is IMR stated?

Answer 17

In the ministerial code of conduct

Question 18

give an example of how CMR is important to survival of a govt.

Answer 18

1958- chancellor of exchequer, Peter Thorneycroft resigned rom the Macmillan government - could not publicly support what he regarded as the excessive public spending of the govt. while two other treasure members also resigned with him , Macmillan dismissed the resignations as ‘little local difficulties’ and the govt went on to win a landslide victory at the 1959 election .

Question 19

give an example of how CMR can weaken a govt ?

Answer 19

1990 Deputy PM , pro-european Geoffrey Howe resigned from thatcher govt. 2 days after Thatcher publicly presented her euroscepticism , He stated in his resignation letter that he could no longer serve under an increasingly eurosceptic PM = his resig. prompting the leadership challenge of Michael Heseltine and later Thatcher had been removed from office.

Question 20

using an example, explain how can CMR be vulnerable to change?

Answer 20

• May’s foreign sec. Boris Johnson freq. criticised may’s brexit plans and instead put forward his own proposals, creating image of dis-united Cabinet with a power struggle , however May’s reluctance to fire Johnson was due to her reliance on cons. brexit MP’s (all in favour of Johnson) to support her- also showing that power of PM is limited and so relaxing of CMR is used.

Question 21

give an example of when CMR was suspended

Answer 21

2016 - Cameron suspended CMR to allow members of the Cabinet such as Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers to campaign against membership of the EU , which went against govt. wishes to remain.