The Executive II - unit 2

Question 1

Thatcher case study - key policies and stats

Answer 1

• Privatisation of major former nationalised industry
• Curbing trade union power
• House ownership and the poll tax

Question 2

Thatcher case study - background and state of the party

Answer 2

• Was facing the 3 day week, excessive trade unions and Winter of Discontent - strikes in grave diggers, bin pick up - ‘sick man of europe’
• Up to 1982-83 party was split into

The ‘dries’ - neo-liberals and free market, low direct taxation

Traditional, centrist, one nation ‘wets’ - accounts of business, workers and welfare trying to mediate - purged from her leadership, dismissed from gov

Question 3

Thatcher case study - relationship with cabinet ministers

Answer 3

• Got rid of people who disagreed with her - Heseltine sacked over Westland affair
  Lawson opposed poll tax and resigned as he felt criticism made his job impossible

Question 4

Thatcher case study - size of her majority in parliament

Answer 4

• 1983 - 144
• 1987 - 102
  could easily pass with little issue

Question 5

Thatcher case study - relationship with party

Answer 5

• Ruled with iron fist, head of a united party agreeing on her political vision
• No wets, only dries
• Steamrolled Cabinet

Question 6

Thatcher case study - domestic issues

Answer 6

• Poll tax terrible (replacing local property tax)- despite opposition on all sides, did not consider income
• Cost seats in upcoming election, heseltine leadership challenge, close allies abandoned, knew they would win without her

Question 7

Thatcher case study - international events

Answer 7

• Falklands War - decisive military action, showed leadership
• USA announced boycotts on Moscow 1980 Olympics - she wanted to as well, public opinion said no

Question 8

Thatcher case study - circumstances on her loss of power

Answer 8

• Howe resignation and devastating speech - criticised her relations with the EEC, undermining the policies on EMU proposed by her chancellor and governor of the bank of England, attacked her gov - country’s future
• Leadership election by Heseltine - former defence and environmental secretary - failed on first ballot by 4 votes, lost 2nd, embarrasing, resigned
• Role of her Cabinet - too dominating, eurosceptics, wets and dries

Question 9

Thatcher case study - her fall - poll tax

Answer 9

• Ignored warnings from cabinet and mps - isolated, out of touch, rid of her
• mass refusal to pay in scot and big demonstrations in london showed unpopularity

Question 10

Thatcher case study - her fall - relations with ministers

Answer 10

• dicatorial style provoked resignations - heseltine 1986, lawson 1989, howe 1990

Question 11

Thatcher case study - her fall - attitude of her MPs

Answer 11

• opinion polls showed theyd lose under her
• anthony meyers stood against her in 1989 - 33 mps voted for him despite him not being a serious candidate for pm and over 30 abstained

Question 12

Thatcher case study - her fall - state of the economy

Answer 12

• 1987 stock market crash wiped 24% off share pcies, prompting excessive tax cuts - caused inflation to rise by over 8% by june 1989
• gov rose interest rates 15% oct 1989 - hurt homeowners (her natural supporters) and undermined her claim to have transformed british economy)

Question 13

Thatcher case study - her fall - divisions over Europe

Answer 13

• all resignations involved disagreements over europe - heseltine supported a european rather than us bid for westland helicopter company and lawson and howe wanted to link the £ to the eec erm (exchange rate mechanism)

howe speech criticised her ‘no’ ‘no’ ‘no’ attitude towards europe and her bruges speech in 1989 accusing the eec of wanting to set up a political union

Question 14

Blair case study - key policies

Answer 14

• extensive programme of constitutional reforms and devolution
• sharp and sustained increase in expenditure and health and education - increase in welfare benefits and national minimum wage introduced
• active foreign policy with major interventions such as good friday, balklans war, sierra leone

Question 15

Blair case study - prime ministerial style

Answer 15

• charismatic, part of collective leadership, key policies adopted by lab gov after 1997 delegation to leading cohort
• econ - brown
• domestic social - straw, blunkett, haman and dobston
• after 6-7 years, leadership singular, felt like he over reached authority
• ignored cabinet, 1-2-1, sofa politics

Question 16

Blair case study - relationship with Cabinet

Answer 16

• alistor campbell - press secretary and director of communications
• jonathan powl - chief of staff
• could impose policy initatives
• tightly ran no.10 operations with power from the centre - strong lead, no cabinet
• shadow became his 1st cabinet he didnt choose - ignored - 1-2-1

Question 17

Blair case study - size of his majority

Answer 17

very large majorities - 179 being one of the biggest in history - able to impose policy agenda
suffered no defeats in hoc in his first 8 years
but maj reduced in 2005 to 44, suffered 4 defeats in commons over 8 months from nov 2005 - july 2006

Question 18

Blair case study - relationship with his party

Answer 18

led a united party under new lab - left wingers like corbyn had a smaller maj, underpinned thatcher authority
2003 - 4 events divided party and by 2007 - so spilt he had to go

Question 19

Blair case study - domestic issues

Answer 19

his key policies which were…?

Question 20

Blair case study - international events

Answer 20

• initiated 2 successful overseas military campaign in kosovo and sierra leone
• peace process in ni - established power sharing gov with good friday agreement
• but ordered uk forces to join us - led invasion of iraq - terrible - no evidence that saddam hussein’s regime had accumulated weapon - so bad that robin cook - leader of communicatiosn and former foreign sec reignsed over iraq war and 84 lab mps rebelled

Question 21

2 circumstances with Blair’s loss of power

Answer 21

brown and granita deal - internal opposition grew and gathered around brown until party fell apart - blair agreed to only run or 2 terms if brown didnt do leadership contest, broke it and ran for 3

curry house plot/coup 2006 - 50 mainly backbench mps called for resignation - brown backed by reid - home sec but said he would ‘end debilitating leadership speculation’ - walston, a close brown ally orchestrated this

Question 22

Johnson case study - time as PM pre-majority (july-december 2019)

Answer 22

july 2019 reshuffle in response to resignations of rudd and jo johnson

3rd sep 2019 drew whip from 21 mps who where remainers - allow hoc to undertake eu proceedings

prorogation crisis28 aug 2019 - uk forced to be prorogued by queen elizabeth on the advice of johsnon - advice was ruled unlwafyl - went against convention to stop people debating brexit, controversial longest period of prorogation prevented parl from debate - extreme scrutiny from supreme court - ‘like it never happened at all’

Question 23

Johnson case study - prime ministerial leadership past 2019 general election

Answer 23

pledges:
- 300k new homes - missed target by 5k despite peak of housing

• • get brexit done, succeeded - left 31 jan 2022 11 months after agreeing a basic free market deal with eu

Question 24

Johnson case study - attitudes towards Cabinet

Answer 24

pre covid - rubber stamp, not socially diverse, pro brexit, heavily unrep - ministers like robert buckland fired for talking too long or disagreed with boris

after covid - ‘listening mode’ - enocuraged ministers to speak, ideas on partygate scandal, lost control, first pm to be sanctioned for breaking law during office

Question 25

Johnson case study - influence of unelected advisors

Answer 25

• Dominic Cummings - March 2020 broke Brexit rules he tried to create - drove to Barnards castle despite covid symptoms despite national lockdown - said he experienced serious fever - huge public backlash, resigned in november 2020

Question 26

Johnson case study - party divides /personal weaknesses

Answer 26

northern research group - northern mps pressure gov for greater investment

partygate scandal - gatherings of gov and con party staff during covid 19 restrictions - sue gray investigator - waiting for the report

pincher resigned as gov deputy chief whip bc of sexual misconduct allegations from 2 men - ‘pincher by name, pincher by nature’ - hired knowing this

Question 27

Rishi case study - when and how did he get his job and his majority

Answer 27

• elected unpooposed oct 2022 to succeed truss who resigned amiss gov crisis crashing econ, spent duration of his premiership on the backbench

52 as of feb 2024

Question 28

Rishi case study - how united is his party and him in the opinion polls

Answer 28

lee anderson and brendan clarke smith resigned deputy chairs of the con party after defying sunak by backing right wing challengers to harden rwanda deportation bill

truss formed faction popular con to unify right wing of party and pressure sunak - ‘giving freedom back’

party support - 26 feb 2024 - 25% whilst lab is 44% - theyre united - starmer threatening to remove whip from corbyn

Question 29

Rishi case study - successes

Answer 29

• stability to economy - ‘eat out to help out’, did well as chancellor of exchequer, calmed financial markets
• ni assembly reopened, power sharing resume and windsor framework signed march 2024 to replace ni protocol
• ukraine - visit from zelensky in feb 2023 and pledge continued
• pay deals negotiated in sectors following strikes

Question 30

Rishi case study - failures

Answer 30

• inconsistent - hs2 in manchester closed without telling parl, u turn on net 0
• not dealt with public sectors effectively to prevent them - junior doctors continue
• failed to sack zahawi swiftly - irregular tax and rehiring braverman as home sec days after security breach

Question 31

Circumstances that govern the power of the PM

Answer 31

• size of maj - strong democartic legitimacy, ‘will of the people’, easier to pass legis, lots of new and loyal mps, blair 1997, 178 maj, may relying on c&s agreement
• events - can be made or broken - grenfell tower, diana - blair
• united - blair, united, authority new lab, major - instability with eurosceptics and europhiles
• pm can overstep authority, powerful forces can act against them, described as elastic theory, thatcher streamlining and howe and heseltine, blair lost cabinet support - brown, curry coup

Question 32

PM is stronger than Cabinet

Answer 32

• pm percieved to be gov leader and chief spokesperson, almost as a de facto head of state, prime ministerial coattails - pm is so personally popular, mps win seats on back of mps pop, corbyn lost seats brexit
• pm has large maj - rubber stamp, millenium dome 1997, sofa gov, had control to allow bank of england to control interest rates
• pm has patronage - encourages loyalty and collective reponsibility - ‘primus inter parus’ - first amongst equals, power is collectove, not equal, pm chooses members in cabinet and reshuffle - johsnon july 2019 resuffle

Question 33

Cabinet is stronger than PM

Answer 33

• cabinet can overrule pm - robin cook over iraq war as foreign sec, 2018 - may confidently claimed ‘full backing’ of cabinet for her chequers agreement - negotitating terms for the eu - within two days brexit and foreign sec resigned
• weak maj - may c&s - 7 cab ministers defy to oppose brexit delay - more than half tory mps voted against pm
• powerful cab ministers and big beats - badenoch in rishi cab - 12 march 2024 - sec of state for business and trade, called out tory donors racist remarks - frank hester - first cab minister to speak out- energy minister graham stuart did not