Book contents
- The Impossible Office?
- Works by Anthony Seldon
- The Impossible Office?
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 The Bookend Prime Ministers
- Chapter 2 A Country Transformed, 1721–2021
- Chapter 3 The Liminal Premiership
- Chapter 4 The Transformational Prime Ministers, 1806–2021
- Chapter 5 The Powers and Resources of the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
- Chapter 6 The Constraints on the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
- Chapter 7 The Eclipse of the Monarchy, 1660–2021
- Chapter 8 The Rise and Fall of the Foreign Secretary, 1782–2021
- Chapter 9 The Rise, and Rise, of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1660–2021
- Chapter 10 The Impossible Office?
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 9 - The Rise, and Rise, of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1660–2021
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2021
- The Impossible Office?
- Works by Anthony Seldon
- The Impossible Office?
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 The Bookend Prime Ministers
- Chapter 2 A Country Transformed, 1721–2021
- Chapter 3 The Liminal Premiership
- Chapter 4 The Transformational Prime Ministers, 1806–2021
- Chapter 5 The Powers and Resources of the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
- Chapter 6 The Constraints on the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
- Chapter 7 The Eclipse of the Monarchy, 1660–2021
- Chapter 8 The Rise and Fall of the Foreign Secretary, 1782–2021
- Chapter 9 The Rise, and Rise, of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1660–2021
- Chapter 10 The Impossible Office?
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
By the early twentieth century the prime minister had reached the status of being the preeminent figure in British politics. The monarchy and the royal court had steadily declined in influence, as seen in Chapter 7. The Foreign Secretary and the Foreign Office rose, but then fell in power, as described in Chapter 8. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Treasury rose, and then rose again, to become, by the end of the twentieth century, the biggest single potential challenge to the power of the prime minister. No longer subordinate at all. Naked political power, ambition, the knowledge that some were virtually unsackable, and the backing of the mighty resource of the Treasury, ensured that they had become a power to themselves, strutting around Westminster and Whitehall like an almighty baron in medieval England.
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- The Impossible Office?The History of the British Prime Minister, pp. 281 - 312Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021