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Description of Britain's Prime Ministers 1720-2005 |
This book combines an introductory essay on the emergence and changing role of the British Prime Minister with short biographies (average 2500 words) of the fifty-one who have played that role from Sir Robert Walpole to Tony Blair.
Though Walpole never held the title of ‘prime minister’, his long tenure as principal minister of the Crown and as the dominant figure in the House of Commons effectively established him as Britain’s first prime minister. The circumstances of the Hanoverian succession left him and his successors more answerable to a majority in Parliament than to the King. Though George III sought a more active role in government, leadership of Parliament became the determining factor of who was prime minister.
The nineteenth century into the twentieth marked a new shift in emphasis. At the beginning of the period, parliament was dominated by a land-owning oligarchy, but as the franchise was gradually extended to adult male and, finally female, suffrage, the prime minister became ultimately answerable to the democratic vote. The creation of the welfare state and manage-ment of the economy gave a different emphasis to the role in the second half of the twentieth century.
These essays, revealing how each holder moulded the office in response to the situation of the time, make a valuable contribution to the current debate about the nature of the office.
The preface by Lord Butler, who served Wilson and Heath as Private Secretary, and Thatcher, Major and Blair as Cabinet Secretary, will add insight into the current day workings of the office.
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