BRITISH CABINET

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

BRITISH CABINET

How It Meets

Just as in all well-regulated household someone has to direct things, so in Parliament there has to be a “manager,” says a writer in an English weekly. He is the Prime Minister, and he has under him a score of departmental managers—the Cabinet. What is the relation of Cabinet to Parliament? Do Ministers merely use Parliament as an approving machine for their decisions? Or are we really rukd by Parliament? The answer to the last question is: Yes. very definitely. No Minister, however powerful, can force Parliament to pass a law of which it disapproves. And until Parliament does pass a law, it is no law.

'Come with me to a meeting of Cabinet. It takes place behind double doors, with guards to ensure the secrecy of the meeting. If you have ever stood in Downing Street watching Ministers assemble for a Cabinet meeting, you will probably have seen the Cabinet room door. It is green-covered, in direct line with the front entrance. Inside the room there are 22 big mahogany chairs surrounding a long mahogany table which is covered with a dark purple cloth, some books half a dozen telephones, a row of bellpushes—and that is all. The reason for this bareness is to ensure that 'obody hides in the room and hears Cabinet’s secrets. The Prime Minister takes his seat in an armchair with his back to a big grey marble fireplace. On his left sits the" Clerk of the Cabinet, the only man not a Minister who attends Cabinet meetings. His job is to guide Cabinet through its agenda, which he does in whispers to the Prime Minister,

A Cabinet meeting goes like this: — The Prime Minister: Gentlemen, we are to bear a report from the Foreign Secretary on the Ruritanian situation. The Foreign Secretary . • . Then the Foreign Secretary makes his report, without formality. Ministers may ask questions. There is a discussion. All Ministers address, the Premier as “Prime Minis ter” —not “Mr. Prime Minister,” which is a title used by those in less initniahcontact with the head of the Govern nient. Other Ministers are addressed referred to by their department:! I titles.

The discussion is without formali’y and decisions are reached without a vote. Only once in the traditional “blue moon” is a formal vote taken rnd it is almost always followed hy the resignation of the Ministers wlm are defeated. What actually happens is that the Prime Minister, having heard the views of the Ministers, says: “Well, it seems to' me that we feel that so-and-so should be done.” And it is so. The Prime Minister makes all the major decisions, guided by the views of his Ministers.

And all the Ministers have to agree, and fight the decision in Parliament—or resign.

The Prime Minister is aloof from the rest of Cabinet as is a ship’s captain from the crew. He gets his appointment direct from the King, and he Can “require” the resignation of any Minister.

It is a point of honour among Ministers that, however much they may dislike a Cabinet decision, they never say so in public.