CHAPTER 1 - THE CABINET

Abstract

T Cabinet is the natural starting point in any account of British Government; it has been aptly described as the main-spring of all the mechanism of government. Yet the Haldane Report on the Machinery of Government, from which these words are taken, makes no direct reference to the fact that the Cabinet is a creature of party politics. Cabinets owe their very existence to parties as they are composed of members of the party, or coalition of parties, which is supported by a majority of Members of Parliament who sit in the House of Commons. Occasionally, men have entered the Cabinet without having strong party connections or before they have obtained a seat in Parliament. Sir John Anderson, later Lord Waverley, who first became a minister in Neville Chamberlain's pre-war Cabinet, is a case in point. But if a man is to remain a minister for any considerable period, in time of peace, he must become identified with a party. And in becoming identified with a British party, he associates himself with certain broad policies, programs, and attitudes, which are of some significance for the harmonious working of Cabinet government. Most politicians enter the Cabinet via membership of the House of Commons. The few who do not, assuming they are not amongst the usual three or four peers, chosen from the nonelected House of Lords, must, by convention, ultimately obtain a seat in the Commons.