UK Politics

Extra Separation of Powers information

House of Lords – Also known as Peers and act as a watchdog. Some peers are hereditary which means the title is passed down from their father.

The Queen – Must remain neutral. The Queen is our head of state. This means she is the physical embodiment of the IK. She represent the UK abroad

A Republic is a country without a King or Queen

Civil Servant Civil servants work for Politicians. They must remain

neutral and don’t take any political position. They advise on policies and ensure that the policies are

put in place across the UK when they become law. E.g.- The equality act 2010 was administered and delivered by the civil service. This meant booklets and presentations were given to local governments and businesses so that they would know what they are doing.

CSs also advise ministers on policies, how the public are thinking , opinion polls, and what media is saying. ( A minister is in charge of a department, e.g. – Foreign Affairs, Health, Education). This puts CSs in competition with special Advisors or Spin Doctors.

Spin Doctors

Spin Doctors will turn a politicians negative influence better.

Spin doctors suggest sound bites to politicians. E.g. Tony Blair - “Education”

Powers of the Prime Minister

The Executive is made up of 3 parts: 1.Prime Minister 2.Cabinet 3.Civil Service The Monarch – The PM holds prerogative powers that afford

him or her traditional authority The Parts – The PM is the majority party leader; this confers

power and authority as head of government that is both legal and rational

The People – it could be argued that although a PM is not directly elected by the people, most people would vote for a leader as well as a party, therefore indirectly he or she has the peoples authority. This could be called charismatic authority

Parliament – as long as he or she has a majority in and the confidence of the H of C, he Pm has the authority of parliament

The Cabinet – as cabinet chairperson, the PM has the authority of the cabinet

Power of Appointment/Dismissal PM has the power to appoint and dismiss government

ministers. PM has power to ‘hire’ or ‘fire’ or ‘reshuffle’ the

make up of cabinet or government . If someone is over looked for promotion they can become resentful and it is important for the PM to retain the support and loyalty of all his or her MPs. E.g.- Cabinet reshuffle of 2006, Blair ejected Charles Clark from post of Home Secretary. He was so annoyed and dejected that he refused the post of Defense Secretary and returned to back benches.

As part of Coalition 2010, David Cameron could only allocate posts after consulting Nick Clegg and any subsequent allocations had to be agreed between PM and Deputy PM.

Power of Patronage PM has power to be involved in appointing

people to important positions outside the government. In 2010, Dolar Popat, a self made millionaire, who has given Torries more than £200K in donations was given a seat in the H of L by David Cameron. His position is Government Whip.

Majority Party Leadership

As leader of the largest party in the H of C, the PM usually has a majority and therefore a position of confidence to successfully carry out his of her governments programme

Power of Dissolution

PM can use prerogative power to dissolve parliament and hold a general election.

Tony Blair in 2001 and 2005 called an election with one year of the 5 year parliament still to run

Cabinet Chairperson In Cabinet are Senior Civil Servants, SPADs, MPs,

Lords, Minister, Spin Doctors PM chairs cabinet meetings and has power to set

the agenda and determine what is discussed and what isn't.

PM controls the pace and direction of the meetings and sums up the ‘sense’ of what took place.

PM used to be called ‘first among equals’ Nowadays PM is becoming more

presidential and powerful. PMs can dominate cabinets, e.g. – Margaret Thatcher. If ministers question a strong MP they are likely to be removed from the Cabinet.

Image and Popularity PM rely on support of the people and need to

remain popular and appear statesmanlike. They provide national leadership at home and internationally, leading the nation in times of crisis

Also empowers PM to sit with other world leaders and attend high profile meetings at G8 and EU summits. They are directly involved in foreign policy and PM negotiates treaties

Policy Maker

PMs policy making role is broad and is not confined to one department like other ministers,

Select Committees Gov. departmental Select Committees in the H of C

scrutinize the work of all major Gov. departments. They are the most effective means of parliamentary scrutiny of the executive and decision-making process.

SCs have 11 backbench MP members who are elected by their own party members, but uses to be selected by party whips.

Each party is represented in proportion to the number of MPs it has in the H of C.

Committees gather written evidence and examine witnesses, then report their findings and recommendations to the commons. The Gov. must respond to all reports and usually has 60 days to do so.

There are 19 departmental SCs, one to shadow each dept.

Their powers to derive from the H of C and include the ability to meet outside Westminster, meet with other committees, appoint outside specialist advisors and send for ‘People, Paper & Records’.

The SC system allows for the questioning of ministers & PMs and forces them to explain themselves.

However ministers/PM doesn't need to go before an SC, but it will look like they are trying to hide something or cover it up. They are likely to go to put their point of view across and ‘spin’ on an issue

In 2010 the commons Committee of Public Accounts published a report on the major projects of the Ministry of Defense (MOD). Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the committee, criticized the Gov. & MOD by stating that poor decisions had led to billions of pounds being wasted with additional costs being met by tax payers. She called on them to spell at how they were going to get their defense procurement budget under control

Criticism of Select Committees

Because SC membership reflects the composition of the H of C, a Gov. with a majority in the house also has a majority on committees. This means that they will have to scrutinize their own party. Some of these MPs will be ambitious and want to become future ministers. Therefore will not want to get their leadership in trouble or uncover wrong doing. Also they will not want to embarrass their party within the SC where there's opposition MPs

Also witnesses can withhold important information. E.g. – When foreign Affairs SC scrutinized the issues surrounding the Iraq war, evidence was routinely withheld on the grounds that it would compromise national security and undermine the work of the intelligence services.

Gov. is not bound by any recommendations made by SCs and after giving its response to any recommendations it can simply reject them

Public Bills Committees

2006 they were introduced to scrutinize legislation.

However their composition still reflects the proportion of the parties in parliament, meaning that the government retains a majority on each committee – easing the passage of bills

Backbench Business Committee

Gives MPs power to call for debates in Chamber and Westminster Hall at least once a week

Consists of only 8 MPs – 4 Conservatives, 3 Labour and 1 Liberal Democrat – Leading to the criticism that smaller parties are being excluded

Whip System A Backbench Rebellion is when ordinary MPs group

together to vote against their own party’s policies/bills To keep trouble makers in line, each party appoints a party

whip The whip sends voting advice to MPs suggesting and even

demanding to vote with the party A 1 line whip strongly suggests to vote their way A 3 line whip demands that the MP follows party voting. A 3 line whip also means they must attend and if they don’t

follow the whip system they can be excluded from the party (this is called having the whip removed)

There is pressure to toe the party line but sometimes people will expect their MP to vote the way they want which may be against the Gov. or their own party

If there are a lot of MPs denying the whip they are unlikely to be excluded all at once

Styles of Government Thatcher dominated her Cabinet and was a very

strong leader Tony Blair was a strong leader but he liked to

make decisions away from the Cabinet meetings. He preferred working out solutions with a few trusted advisors in an informal environment. E.g. – Sitting on the sofa of his office. This was called ‘Sofa Government’

Blair gave huge power to his chief spin doctor Alistair Campbell (Press Secretary)

Blair's reign became known as “The rise of spin,” trying to manipulate media to make Blair and New Labour appear good

Gordon Brown’s style was that of a hands-on leader involved in the detail and the doing of the work rather than delegating – especially when it comes to special aides.

He gave a limited role to cabinet. He came across as a committed PM but austere and with poor communication and people skills.

According to Alistair Campbell there are 2 somewhat conflicting aspects of David Cameron’s style of leadership

On one hand he has taken the job as PM as to the manor born. His time at Eton has given him an inner and outer confidence that he puts to good use

On the other hand when it comes to policy detail, Campbell feels he does not go deep enough and so risks appearing to be making it up as he goes along

Limits of the Prime Minister

PM has ability to create a Cabinet in his or her own image. In reality, a PMs power within the cabinet is limited by a need to assuage the ambitions of party colleagues.

Senior members and those who have been loyal and show potential may expect to be included in the government regardless of their own political views.

PM is also restricted by the pool of MPs that is available; while it is his or her only source. It can also provide obstacles.

Subsequently the PM may be pushes into offering positions to potential rivals and opponents; these people may be less trouble inside the cabinet, where they are bound by the convention of collective responsibility rather than outside it on the back benches – where they could stir up dissent and be a focus for rebels should a policy be controversial

“Margaret Thatcher, Conservative PM form 1979 to 1990 was regarded as a strong and effective leader. Yet the ‘Iron Lady’ was effectively forced out of office by her cabinet colleagues in November 1990, thus demonstrating the limitation of the office of the PM.”

“PM Cameron had trouble with the right of his policies on giving prisoners the vote, his Home Secretary's liberal views on Law and Order and the cuts to Defense budget while the international aid budget was maintained. In fact, Cameron saw more of his own MPs rebel and faced more Revolts in his 1st year in office than Tony Blair during the whole of his 2st term.”

Party Support

It is important that the PM retains the support of the party. It is the party members who elect the leader; without their support, the PM would not be leader and therefore could not be the PM

As some Conservative MPs began to show a relentlessness and frustration at having to share power with the Liberal Democrats while waiting for that promotion that might never come, it is worth noting that 3 of Cameron’s 6 predecessors were forced out by leadership election

Public Opinion

PM can be limited in achieving his or her aims through a lack of support from the general public

Changing the UK voting system was taken out of the hands of the government and placed into the hands of the people through a referendum

Events

Several key events limited Gordon Brown's power as PM and eventually led to his defeat at the polls in 2010

E.g. – The Global Financial Crisis, the unexpected backlash over the Gurkha resettlement issue, the damaging MPs expense controversies and ;the Bigot Gate’ incident, followed by the resignation of several key cabinet members were some of the events that indicated his dwindling power and support

The Opposition Is the largest minority party and its purpose is to

oppose government of the day However the leader of the opposition occasionally

has to decide whether to set aside that purpose and offer limited cooperation to the PM

There is a leader of the largest opposition party (Currently Labour Party with leader Ed Milliband in Commons)

The leader of the opposition picks ‘a shadow cabinet’ to follow and scrutinize the work of each government department and policies bring developed

The CabinetPowers of the Cabinet Cabinet has no legal powers; any powers that are

assumed to lie with the cabinet are held by secretaries of state

Collective Responsibility – even if they were not present when they were made

PMs are now more likely to consult with external think tanks, cabinet committees and special advisors before making decisions

E.g.- The Cabinet Office Briefing room (COBRA), which has both ministers and non-Gov. officials take decisions on national security in emergency situations. This leads to the perception that the cabinet may be less powerful than once was and is only there to rubber stamp decision that have already been made or to present Gov. policy and decisions.

Limits of the Cabinet Collective Responsibility: Members must agree

publicly with government policy even though the may privately disagree with it. If they cannot do this they must resign

PM selects Cabinet Ministers Cabinet does not always have time so delegate work to

Cabinet Committees Cabinet Ministers can be moved or sacked in a reshuffle Individual Ministerial responsibility: Ministers are responsible

for the conduct of themselves and their department. If they make mistakes then traditionally they must sacrifice themselves and resign

For example – David Laws became the shortest serving minister in history when he resigned as Chief Secretary to the treasury after just 16 days because of expenses he should not have claimed

Cabinet Office

Lies at the center of government with the purpose of making the government work better

Supports the PM and Cabinet helping to ensure effective development, co-ordination and implementations of policy's and operations across of government departments

Cabinet Committees Work of Cabinet is delegated to committees These committees reduce the burden on cabinet by

enabling collective decisions to be made by a smaller group of ministers who are able to deal more efficiently with the large volume of government business

Often quick needs of decision making means that it is not possible to involve the whole cabinet in many policy decisions. So PM selects a smaller group of 4 or 5 ministers to form committees

Some committees are permanent while others are just set up for a specific issue

Cabinet committees now handle the majority of cabinetwork and decisions they make have authority of the full cabinet

In an event that a committee can’t agree, it will be sent to the full cabinet for a final decision

House of Lords By Parliament we mean MPs (Backbenchers & others)

and the House of Lords. The H of L has around 750 members They scrutinize bills and vote on them and suggest

amendments (changes) to the bills. Today the lords are more assertive PM can appoint peers or peers can be hereditary

meaning the title has been passed down from their father. Hereditary peers have been cut dramatically and down to about 72

There has been reform at the H of L but it has not gone far enough.

there is debate of making the H of L elected however after some reform has passed the H of L feels (and has the right) more able to challenge the H of C

Role of the House of Lords

Scrutinize Legislation Debate Issues Highlights concerns that will be usually picked up by the media

and then the public find out. H of L is televised However can be argued that H of L is getting important issues to

the public through being televised Sit in specialist committees. There are permanent committees on

Technology & Science, Economics, Europe, etc. these committees benefit from the huge experience and expertise of the peers. Peers backgrounds include athletics, acting, science, medicine, law, writing & politics. Therefore these committees can give valuable advice, knowledge and suggestions to the government

Although the Lords cannot block a bill from becoming law. They can however delay a bill for 1 year. In reality the H of C does accept some of the decisions from the H oh L and will voluntarily rrop around half of the bills that the lords don’t want. Many times delaying bills will kill/disappear as the H of C don’t have time to debate then as they are very busy