British Government in Crisis

Preliminaries......Page 1
Contents......Page 7
Introduction What Has Gone Wrong......Page 9
1 Parliament......Page 15
2 The Constitution Acquires a Third Element The Civil Service......Page 28
3 Decision Making The Exercise of Ministerial Power......Page 41
4 Laws That Work......Page 54
5 Cabinet Tries to Cope......Page 68
6 Overload and Gridlock The Old Regime’s Decline......Page 81
7 Margaret Thatcher......Page 97
8 The Poll Tax......Page 109
9 Major The Counter Revolution That Failed......Page 119
10 The House of Commons Less Representative Less Effective......Page 135
11 The Spread of Grass Roots Anarchy......Page 149
12 Blair’s Cabinet Monarchy Returns......Page 167
13 The Excesses of News Management......Page 184
14 Ministers Diminished Standing......Page 199
15 Civil Service End of Northcote Trevelyan......Page 215
16 Nadir of Government The Railways......Page 231
17 Summarising the Revolution......Page 246
18 Resilience or a Third Presidency......Page 259
19 A More Legal Constitution......Page 271
20 Restoration......Page 286
Conclusion Where Do We Go From Here......Page 297
Appendix The Author’s Relevant Experience......Page 307
Bibliography......Page 309
Index......Page 321