The UK government

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The UK government

• 23rd November, 2011

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Executive power

• Her Majesty the Queen
• Her Majestys Government
• the Prime Minister
• other Ministers
• the supreme decision-making committee the
  Cabinet (leaders of government departments,
  members of the Privy Council)

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The Prime Minister

• Selected by the monarch as the leader of the
  party most likely to command a majority in
  Parliament
• David Cameron minister for the Civil Service
• the Conservative Party had a hung Parliament in
  2010
• coalition government with the Liberal Democrats

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Government departments

• 24 ministerial departments
• Attorney Generals Office
• Cabinet Office
• Home Office
• Ministry of Justice
• Office of the Advocate General for Scotland

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• 26 non-ministerial departments
• Crown prosecution service
• Serious fraud office
• the Treasury Solicitors Department
• CIVIL SERVANTS permanent bureaucracy of Crown
  employees that support the government

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The Cabinet (shadow cabinet)

• executive committee of Her Majestys Most
  Honourable Privy Council
• - formal body of advisers to the Queen
• - advises the Queen on the Royal Prerogative,
  Royal Charters
• - other members the opposition, the senior
  judges (Judicial Committee of the Privy Council)

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The Government and the Crown

• The Royal Prerogative consists of the following
  domestic powers
• to dismiss and appoint other ministers
• to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament
• to grant or refuse Royal Assent to bills 
• to commission officers in the Armed Forces
• to command the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom
• to appoint members to the Queen's Council
• to issue and withdraw passports
• to grant Prerogative of mercy
• to grant honours
• to create corporations via Royal Charter

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The Government and the Parliament

• Responsible government
• Ministers are responsible to the House they sit
  in
• the Prime Minister must be an elected MP and must
  be accountable to the House of Commons
• Cabinet collective responsibility (to the
  Parliament and to the government policies)

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• BUT
• First-past-the-post voting system (the candidate
  with the most votes, not necessarily the
  majority, wins)

Seats Seats Votes Votes
Labour 355 56.5 36.1 9.552,436
Conserv. 198 31.5 33.2 8,782,192
Liberal D. 62 9.9 22.6 5,985,454
Scot. Nat. 6 1.0 1.6 412,267
Plaid Cym. 3 0.5 0.7 174,838
others 4 0.6 5.7 1,523,716
628
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• Government Whips
• enforcers who offer inducements and threaten
  punishement for party members to ensure that they
  vote according to the official party policy
• also must ensure that party members are in
  attendance when important voting is scheduled

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• payroll vote
• - MPs who concurrently hold government positions
  and are on the governments payroll

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Limits of government power

• powers limited to those retained under common law
  or granted by Acts of Parliament
• subject to EU Law and judicial review
• HM Judges, Local Authorities and the Charity
  Commission are more or less independent

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Prime ministers

• Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl
  Mortimer KD
• William Pitt the Younger
• (1783 age 24)
• Field Marshal Arthur
• Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, 
• GCH, PC, FRS

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• Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, P
  C, FRS
• William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS (PM 4 separate
  times)
• Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS (1937-1940)
• Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH,
   TD, PC, DL, FRS, Hon. RA

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• Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl
  Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS
• Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness
  Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS
• Sir John Major, KG, CH, ACIB
• (1990-1997)
• Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
• (1997-2007)
• James Gordon Brown (2007-2010)

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Political parties

• Up to mid 19th century
• Whigs (aristocrats, industrialists and merchants)
  Liberal Party up to 1920
• Labour Party emerged as an alliance between trade
  unions and socialists socities
• Liberals merged with Social Democrats
• Liberal Democrats

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• Tories (landed gentry, Church of England, Church
  of Scotland) Conservative Party
• Conservative Party centre-right
• Thatcherites free market, eurosceptic,
• One Nation Conservatives economically moderate,
  more europhile
• Cornerstone Group socially conservative, deeply
  eurosceptic

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• Labour party centre-left
• mixed market policies replaced earlier
  socijalists views
• support greater pro-Europeanism
• still have left-wing factions

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• Liberal Democrats radical centrist
• socially progressive, support the welfare state
  and social liberalism
• support greater EU integration
• Ireland Democratic Unionsit Party, Sinn Fein,
  Social Democratic and Labour Party, Alliance
  Party of Northern Ireland, Ulster Unionist Party,
  Green Party in Northern Ireland

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Thank you!