AS revision: PM power

Ben Franklin is reported to have said that two things are certain in life, death and taxes. We could add a further certainty: if a PM/Cab questions comes up in AS exams it will be the most popular response. Here is a quick note about GB.

When considering whether PM has power has grown, whether Cabinet government has been replaced by prime ministerial government etc the best candidate responses tend to indicate that power ebbs and flows both between and within premierships. The variability of power is determined by personality and circumstance. We can see this in the Gordon Brown case study. Here is a man who a few months ago appeared to have regained control of events as he took a leading role at the G20 and other discussions with world leaders about how to get the economy going again. There was, if you remember, even talk of GB calling an early election, a tactic designed to capitalise on the PM’s respect and trust amongst the electorate on economic competence - an early election may not have been won, but it may have avoided the kind of meltdown that many had been predicting was likely for Labour in late 2008.

But today’s Times shows how quickly fortunes change. A new poll suggests that Brown and Labour have come off looking a lot worse as a result of the MPs’ expenses scandal than David Cameron and the Tories. I don’t quite understand how this has happened, but there are a lot of things about the electorate that are difficult to explain. Further, if a general election were to be held tomorrow, just 21% of voters would support Labour. These figures suggest a nightmare scenario for the party and for this reason discussion has turned to the death of Labour. If, as the same poll predicts, Labour finish fourth in the EU elections on Thursday, this could trigger a chain of events leading to a leadership bid against Brown.

PM power, therefore, ebbs and flows. GB’s recent difficulties is a good example to illustrate this and credit will be given if analysed in the governing the UK papers.