The power of the PM: a double edged sword

The pros and cons of presidential style

Professor Michael Foley over twenty years ago developed his thesis of the British presidency. This was predicated on the idea that UK leaders co-opted the tactics used by US presidents to overcome the constitutional limits on their powers, and it was only in this context could we understand the successes and failures of British Prime Ministers. Techniques included portraying themselves as outsiders, exploiting media in its myriad guises, and so on.

And then there is the quasi-Head of State thesis, where PMs will seek to make the most of opportunities to be photographed in the presence of other world leaders at international summits.

We have seen the current PM, Boris Johnson, relentlessly exploit the media in two summits in recent days. At the G7 summit in Cornwall, Johnson has had photo-ops alongside not only the leaders of the major western nations, but also the UK's actual Head of State. Then Johnson contrived to copy something else top American politicians have been doing for some time, being captured out exercising, in order to look dynamic. So Johnson was first pictured jogging along the beach at St Ives, before doing his best impersonation of one of the stars of some sort of British Baywatch by taking a plunge into the Atlantic.

See: https://metro.co.uk/2021/06/13...

So far, so successful.

But the summit itself can be described at best as something of a damp squib. Campaigners on poverty and climate change reacted with disappointment that the summit had ended with a vague commitment to addressing these twin global problems. So it was left to Johnson to defend the deal that had been struck, with the end result that his name was attached to a series of critical headlines in the nation's press.

See, for example: https://www.theguardian.com/wo...