However there are cases in which the media has had positive effects on a Prime Minister’s popularity, such as “The Sun”, which, notably, turned its bias towards Tony Blair and the Labour party before their large win of 1997. Secondly, the cabinet is a large source of the Prime Minister’s power. Although the Prime Minister has the power to appoint and fire the members of his cabinet, these members have the authority to reject the Prime Minister; this was the case for Margaret Thatcher in 1990 after the leadership challenge by Michael Heseltine. The powers of the cabinet mean that a Prime Minister has to have significant support by the members to be able to receive the full amount of power. This source of power is also affected by members of the cabinet whom are too powerful and important to easily dismiss, most recently famous was during Tony Blair’s leadership, 1997 – 2007, and the pressure he received off Gordon Brown to leave.
M4 analyse how government policies are developed What is a policy? A policy is a statement of what the government is trying to achieve and why. Government policy is the sum of all the individual policies – as a whole they help to define where the government stands on broad political issues. Reference https://www.gov.uk/government/how-government-works Policies come from a number of sources such as: • The public • The media • Public services • Politicians • Subject experts • Civil servants The first process of developing a policy is actually deciding what is going to be contained in that policy in many instances the details of a policies are left to experts within a civil service department who are there to work for the government. Government lawyers are responsible for actually
The ‘prime ministerial’ government thesis focuses upon the range of patronage available to the prime minister and his tendency to by-pass the Cabinet in making policy decisions - Mackintosh saw the Cabinet as little more than a clearing house and a court of appeal. Other factors are his control over the civil service, his dominance of the House of Commons, his high media profile, and his ability to appear ‘above politics’ and to make direct, statesmanlike appeals to the
The last years of Henrys reign was dominated by conservative and reformist factions . In this essay I will assess the extent of the threat created due to the rivalry of factions that had affected the stability of the government. The execution of Cromwell (1940) was a success for conservatives as was also Henrys marriage to Catharine Haword. The marriage was a gateway to influencing Henry by carving out a new royal policy via Catharine H. This increased tension between the Reformists and conservatives and so the reformists took action to destroy the reputations of Cahrine H , Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner. On the contrary this shows that the disputes between these factions may imply that the King was weak and not in control thus significantly threatening the stability of government .
Discuss the view that the appointment and dismissal of the ministers is the prime ministers most important power. (30 marks) Many argue that the dismissal and appointment of ministers is the most important power the prime minister. There are three arguments against this statement and they are as followed: as PM he can advise the Queen as to who deserves honours, knighthoods etc, he also has the power to appoint the most senior crown members and is Commander-in-chief which allows him to basically control the army. It could be seen that Patronage or the appointment and dismissal the Prime Ministers most important power is that he can appoint and dismiss cabinet ministers. As PM Cameron, in this case, can dismiss and appoint any cabinet members without the constraints of parliament.
2. Prime Ministerial Power 2a) With reference to the source, describe two limitations on prime ministerial power (5). There are many limitations on prime ministerial power, for example referring to the source; the cabinet could turn against Prime Minister. They can overrule the Prime Minister’s decisions and go against them, therefore preventing the PM from implementing legislations and new laws. Another limitation referring to the source could be the media becoming very hostile.
Therefore, despite the argue amount of agreement regarding the ends they would like the country to reach, the means with which they want to do this remains controversial. Before this though, mainly during the 1970s and 1980s, after World War II and the One Nation conservatism that followed however, UK politics was adversarial, the strongly Right winged ideology of Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives against the strongly Left winged views of Labour - both parties fiercely disagreed upon policy and how best to govern Britain. It was only when Tony Blair became Labour Prime Minister in 1997 that Britain's politics became consensual once more after the Thatcher era, with Blair moving of Labour more to the centre ground leading to a large degree of overlap with the Conservative viewpoint and also the Liberal Democrats after becoming an influential party again. Something all 3 main parties disagree on is cutting benefits. The conservatives and Liberal Democrats want to cut family tax credit and other such benefits after a family’s 2nd child to stop people having 7 or 8 children that they cannot support themselves.
They also forced the Tories to make key changes to the Health Bill, protecting the NHS and giving patients more say in its running. As Clegg has openly admitted, a key issue is communication. Liberal successes must be better publicised. The few weak efforts that have been made to broadcast party achievements in government are not sufficient. Perhaps the party does suffer unjustifiably negative media
Three ways in which parliament are able to scrutinise government are the following. One way parliament carries out its scrutiny function is through Question time of the Prime-minister, which takes place every Wednesday, around 12pm to 12pm. Here MP’s have the opportunity to ask one notified question to the Prime-minister and one supplementary question. These Question times are dominated between the leader of the opposition asking up to five supplementary questions and the Prime-minister forced to answer them with justification and explanation. However, Question time is extended o other ministers, forcing them to answer oral question from other MP’s.
This argument shows that the leader of the Labour Party may have restrictions on his or her powers when in opposition as they are made to work with a shadow cabinet hence delegating power. Also it isn’t just the shadow cabinet ministers who have a say, but also the party leader must attend back-bench meetings which allows less prominent members of the parliamentary party to voice their opinions which may influence the party’s next manifesto. Yes the Labour Party leader may delegate some power whilst in opposition, however when in government, it may be an entirely