The British Cabinet, in political terms, is a group ofprime ministerThe official system of appointed government departments.Most of the members are senior government ministers, and most of them are called "ministers" of government departments.
Although the cabinet is often called the first among equalsBritish Prime MinisterLead.The British Prime Minister uses the powers of patronage within the delegated royal privileges to appoint and remove cabinet ministers.
In this way, the Prime Minister also needs to promote any cabinet ministerBritish monarchThe formal consent of;The consent of the monarch is only symbolic, and has never been rejected recently.
The exchange of posts between cabinet ministers is a cabinet reshuffle.The degree of unity of the Prime Minister depends on the political climate and personal style at that time.Prime Minister or Cabinetpermanent secretary Assign CabinetAgenda。In the UKConstitutionalProcedurally, the cabinet is Britishprivy councilSubordinate committee;Therefore, ministers have the title of The Right Honourable.
In modern history, almost all cabinet ministers were members of the House of Commons, and a fewThe House of LordsMembers of Parliament.Today, almost all cabinet ministers are members of the House of Commons, only oneCatherine Ashton Baroness Ashton is the leader of the House of Lords;The last time was in 2003, AmesLordSecretary of State for International Development;And Lord Young served as Minister of Education and Minister of Trade and Industry in the 1980s.
Recently, the British Prime Minister approved African members of Parliament to attend cabinet meetings regularly, such as10 Downing StreetAlastair Campbell, director of communications.
Cabinet meetings
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The cabinet holds a cabinet meeting at a regular meeting, usually every Thursday morning, to discuss important government policies and make decisions in theory.The length of the meeting depends on the style of the Prime Minister and the overall political situation. In today's situation, the time of the cabinet meeting is about 30 minutes.
Relations with Parliament
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There are two key constitutional customs in which the cabinet is responsible to the parliament: collective cabinet responsibility and individual minister responsibility.They originated in the Congress, which is dominated by Parliament,ruling partyThe fact that a member of parliament becomes a cabinet minister.
The responsibility of the collective cabinet means that the whole cabinet needs to bear the consequences of all decisions;When Parliament passesMotion of no confidenceAt that time, all ministers in the cabinet had to resign (return to ordinary members of parliament).Logically, several cabinet ministers with different opinions, for example, opposed toIraqBelligerentGuo Weibang, will be expected to resign.
The responsibility of individual ministers means that each cabinet minister needs to bear the consequences of decisions made by his or her subordinate departments.becauseGovernment civil servantsDue to the anonymity and fixity of the team, any serious negligence of the government department immediately ordered the relevant minister to resign.
The Evolution of the Small Chamber
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Glorious Revolution Previously, the king had a supreme advisory body——privy council, the nobles appointed by the king served as Privy Ministers.
After the Glorious Revolution,William III Several important Privy Ministers were often convened to discuss national affairs in a small secret room, and the term "secret room" in English was gradually used to refer to the cabinet.The Cabinet gradually replaced the Privy Council as the highest administrative organ directly under the king.
House of Hanover Period,George IHe entered Britain as a foreigner because he did not know much about Britain (some people said that he did not know English and could not discuss issues and exchange views with the cabinet members at the cabinet meeting, but this was a myth. At that time, French and medieval languages were commonly used in British cabinet meetings and European courtsLatin）。Therefore, King George I was unwilling to attend the cabinet meeting and even took it as a burden.Over time, it became a rule that the king did not attend the cabinet meeting.
In this case, a person is needed to preside over the cabinet meeting.1721 House of CommonsMajority partyLeader Walpole RenChancellor of the ExchequerHe often presided over cabinet meetings, ranking first among cabinet ministers, and became the actual prime minister, setting a precedent for the majority leader to serve as prime minister and form a cabinet.
So, parliamentaryexecutive powerAs a result, the Cabinet is responsible to the Parliament and regularly reports its work to the Parliament, and gradually forms the practice that once the Cabinet is opposed by the House of Commons, the Prime Minister will resign to apologize to the Parliament, or dissolve the House of Commons for early election, and the newly elected House of Commons will decide the fate of the Cabinet.
