What does Cabinet do?

It seems fair to argue that the PM dominates the central executive territory at the heart of the British political system. The PM has in recent years been accused of presidentialism, making less use of Cabinet, with important decisions been made elsewhere such as in bilaterals (the classic case is “Sofa government” under Blair), increasing the power and status of special advisers, and so forth. These are all ideas that students are familiar with, they sound fairly exciting, and invite easy discussion

And therefore it takes longer to get to grips with what Cabinet does since it is less in the public eye. But Cabinet, and yes this does depend to some extent on how the PM chooses to use the body as collective organ, does still perform some important functions, such as co-ordinating the government’s legislative timetable, dealing with political strategy, keeping ministers up-to-date with latest developments from arenas such as the UN and so on.

Another function of Cabinet is to deal with emergencies, with senior Cabinet members and relevant members of outside bodies (such as the military) in attendance. These special meetings are organised under the term “Cobra”, and one such example happened today. When I first heard about Cobra I imagined high pressured meetings taking place with a giant Cobra symbol on the wall behind the PM. Then I discovered what the acronym stood for. Very disappointing. (That’s a little bit of research for readers who don’t know.)

So, there you go, a very up-to-date example: today’s meeting on dodgy packages in cargo.  If you missed the story I am referring to, see here.

The Coalition and the Conservatives [9 Oct 2011]
President Cameron [22 Jun 2011]
Unit 2 PM/Cab examples [10 May 2011]
No, Prime Minister: a new road map for government [17 Dec 2010]
Power in the central executive territory [16 Oct 2010]
Assessing Blair - Robert Harris’ Damning Review [12 Sep 2010]
How Conservative Members Rate Coalition Cabinet Ministers [12 Sep 2010]
Full Cabinet graphic [18 May 2010]
Cameron As Prime Minister - Is There Anything AS Students Can Say? [15 May 2010]
Gordon Brown’s Reputation in History [15 May 2010]
Brown’s inner circle - AS exam update [6 Apr 2010]
Brown in Power – What the Rawnsley Revelations Tell Us About the Office of Prime Minister [21 Feb 2010]
Executive Power [17 Jan 2010]
The heat is on [17 Nov 2009]
Labour: a summary of old and new Labour policies [2 Oct 2009]
Sunday roundup [14 Sep 2009]
Cabinet government is dead say officials [25 Aug 2009]
Cabinet unshuffle [17 Aug 2009]
US revision: American Cabinet [4 Jun 2009]
AS last minute updates [2 Jun 2009]
AS revision: PM power [30 May 2009]
AS revision: Parliamentary scrutiny [15 May 2009]
What does a spad do? [16 Apr 2009]
A new spin on PM power [28 Mar 2009]
Rawnsley again [15 Mar 2009]
Brown and the first PM [23 Feb 2009]
Gordon’s ‘depression’ [4 Feb 2009]
Advice and consent [3 Feb 2009]
Brown and Mandy [15 Jan 2009]
An hour is a long time in politics [12 Oct 2008]
Media Monday: the Cabinet reshuffle [6 Oct 2008]
Just another Media Monday [7 Sep 2008]
Brown to reshuffle the pack? [16 Aug 2008]
Gordo’s premiership: whatever happened to the clunking fist? [12 Apr 2008]
Brown eggs: pick of the papers [23 Mar 2008]
Brown examples [22 Mar 2008]