Do We Have a Cabinet or Prime Ministerial Government in Britain Today - Essay Example

Do we have a Cabinet or Prime Ministerial government in Britain today? United Kingdom is a sovereign democracy, with the Queen as head of the The British Parliament consists of two houses which are called House of Commons and House of Lords. The House of Commons has elected representatives headed by the Prime Minister. Members of the house are elected for a limited term. Members of House of Lords serve for life barring Bishops and Archbishops of Church of England. In the absence of any written constitution, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, seems to have sweeping powers. Depending upon the way, he functions, new media has slotted the government in one of the two type i.e whether he follows consensus as in Cabinet type of government or is authoritarian. Barring the few prime ministers, the rest of the prime ministers, have followed a set code of collected decision making. The cabinet, comprising of ministers, forms a collective political executive. The prime minister delegates and distributes responsibilities of various departments amongst various ministers who are chosen by him. Since the power of the cabinet rests on the support of the majority party….places constraints on the power of both the PM and the Cabinet (The New British Politics,2004,pp129). Over the period, the prime ministers have followed a democratic pattern of working. The major issues have been discussed at length on the floor of the house and decisions made accordingly. Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and few others, have been the exception. With strong conviction of their own on certain issues, they had gone ahead with them with total disregard to public opinion or that of their colleagues. This type of behaviour by the prime ministers is not tolerated for long period of time and both the prime ministers had to lose their office subsequently in the general elections! All political parties promote one of their leader as prime ministerial candidate during a general elections, who later on assumes the office if the party wins. Tony Blair’s labour party had a landslide victory in 1997 elections which was followed by yet another thumping majority in 2001. The third term saw the waning popularity of the labour party in 2005. Nevertheless, the winning spree in three consecutive terms is significant and has projected Tony Blair as the face of the party and as one of the most dynamic young leaders of the present time. In 1997, when Tony Blair first got elected as the prime minister, he had won with an absolute majority. Despite having no previous experience of holding any public office as a public representative, Blair was a young dynamic leader who believed in implementing the promises made in the party manifesto. He also believed in taking into confidence all his colleagues before coming up with the final decisions on any issues, be it national or regional in perspective. Devolution for Scotland and Wales is a strong point in case. In 1997, Scotland and Wales went for a referendum. Subsequently first elections for Scottish and Welsh parliament were held. Blair has been one of the most media savvy leader of the century. He has taken along his people with him while implementing controversial issues facing the state. Blair, with his strong convincing powers, has smoothly started ‘peace process’ in Ireland that has resulted in a compromise, with the Nationalist Parties of Ireland accepting Northern Ireland as part of United Kingdom after years of violence and strife. Blair has, time and again proved his mettle as a strong leader who enjoys the support of his party members as well as that of opposition. He has carried on with the reforms implemented by the previous conservative governments despite having widely diverse political ideologies. He has also successfully managed to move away from the traditional labour focus on universal welfare benefits, trade unions, high taxations etc. to a more tolerant and popular measures of low taxations, free market, decentralisation of powers etc. He has been able to generate support for EU and has pushed reforms regarding education policies through the parliament. He has taken several initiatives about environment policy and sustainable development. It is true that Blair’s Government has certainly made its mark on the constitution… he has cut an impressive figure on the international stage (Politics UK,2004, pp777). Cautious approach of the first term as Prime Minister was replaced as a dynamic and visionary leader in the second term. He delegated more powers and became more focussed on foreign affairs. He envisioned a wider role of United Kingdom in emerging globalisation. In his reign, his ministers enjoy more autonomy and the bureaucracy has become more powerful. He has proved to be a strong leader whose authority is not undermined. He has made sure that most of his policies and political agenda have mass appeal. ‘Main feature of his Prime Ministership has been the deliberate linking of policy and presentation….not only reflected in the establishment of the Strategic Communications Unit but also in day-to-day operations’ (The Blair Effect, 2001, pp35). He has therefore tried to popularise them before putting them on the floor of the house. He has graciously accepted media as his greatest critic and has also unabashedly used it to his benefit! He has unequivocally supported the importance of education especially higher education and taken strong measures on crime and crime control. 1997-98 Police Act and Crime and Disorder Act emphasise, closer cooperation between police and local authority and give more powers to police for surveillance operations. His fight against terrorism has wide public support. Blair has all through this time enjoyed popular support from public and co-workers. The blunder, in his otherwise bright career as outstanding statesman, has been his involvement with Bush in his war against Iraq and Saddam Hussain under false pretence. The main reason cited for the war was to prevent Saddam from having WMD1. It was also projected as fight against terrorism. False report was prepared by the American Intelligence in order to gain global support and UN sanction. Blair went, almost blindly, along with Bush and sent his troop to Iraq. The deaths of British soldiers in the war fuelled public outrage. The whole WMD affair, which was later investigated by Dr. David Kelly, was found to be manipulated by the American Intelligence. There were, in fact no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the whole war was literally a pre-election propaganda by the incumbent president of America, George Bush! Iraq episode aside, we can safely conclude that Tony Blair, as the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, has almost always taken due cognizance of the opinions of his colleagues, whether they were his party or that of oppositions or the public at large. Prime Minister of a country needs to be strong and assertive. While representing his country in international forums, he is supposed to project the collective decision of his people. Blair, as Prime Minister, has always convinced other members of the parliament, of his government’s plan and policies. He has conformed to the traditions as can be seen by his ethical foreign policy where aid to a country is linked with ethics. He has been forceful in beliefs and decisive in his actions. He realizes that in a world which is ever evolving, a person who represents his country, needs to be flexible without compromising his basic ideologies. Blair is that person. He is a visionary with focussed priorities and he is capable enough and confident enough to implement them successfully. He has proved that he truly believes in consensus and acknowledges it as the real essence of a democratic parliamentary system. He means it when he says ‘I came into politics because I believe passionately that a fair society and a more efficient one go hand in hand……I want all children to grow up with the idealism that we can change society for the better; the things do not have to be as they always have been, but can change; that power, wealth and opportunity need not be held in a few hands but can be shared among all the people’ (Blair, 1996, pp97,252). Bibliography Budge,Ian et al,(2004), The New British Politics. 3rd ed. Essex,Pearson Education Limited. Jones, Bill et al,(2004), Politics UK. 5th ed. Essex,Pearson Education Limited. Seldon,Anthony,ed,(2001),The Blair Effect:The Blair Government 1997-2001,London,Lttle, Brown & Company. Blair,Tony,(1996),New Britain:My vision of a young country,London,Fourth Estate Limited. Read More