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 5 - The Powers and Resources of the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
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
Prime ministers come to office bursting with ideas about how they are going to make Britain a better country and outperform their predecessor, but with only the haziest idea about the job itself. ‘Reality only fully dawns’, says Mark Sedwill, one ex-Cabinet Secretary, ‘when they go to see the monarch, and walk through the front door of Number 10 for the first time.’ Their first words to the nation uttered on the doorstep of Number 10 say more about them than the job to begin moments later. ‘Where there is discord we will bring harmony’, said Thatcher, quoting Francis of Assisi. ‘A country that is at ease with itself’ was Major’s aspiration. For Blair, it was to govern not for ‘the privilege of the few but the right[s] of the many’ and to ‘rebuild trust in politics’. His school motto inspired Brown to promise the nation that ‘I will try my utmost.’ Fighting ‘burning injustices’ was May’s intention, while Johnson was going ‘to restore trust in our democracy’ by ‘uniting our country’ and ‘answering at last the plea of the forgotten people’ by achieving Brexit and ‘level[ling] up across Britain’. Gus O’Donnell, who patiently waited as Cabinet Secretary to greet two incoming prime ministers, made a study of these first speeches, and notes how similar are the aspirations of the virgin prime ministers.
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- Information
- The Impossible Office?The History of the British Prime Minister, pp. 136 - 178Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021