The Prime Minister: The Office and Its Holders Since 1945Analyzing the special chemistry of life in Number 10 Downing Street, Peter Hennessy scrutinizes what the Prime Minister actually does and the way that Cabinet government is run. He draws on unprecedented access to many of the leading politicians and also recently declassified, electrifying archival material. He illuminates Prime Ministerial attitudes towards, and authority over, such topics as nuclear weapons policy, the planning and waging of war, and foreign crises from Suez to the Falklands. He concludes with controversial assessments of each Prime Minister's performance and outlines a new profile of the premiership for the 4th century. |
Contents
The Platonic Idea and the Constitutional Deal | 3 |
Continuity and Cottage Pie | 12 |
The DoubleHeaded Nation | 21 |
The Premiership Before | 36 |
Beyond any Mortal? The Stretching of | 53 |
Premiers War Cabinets | 102 |
Clement Attlee | 147 |
Winston Churchill | 178 |
Edward Heath | 331 |
Harold Wilson 197476 | 357 |
James Callaghan 197679 | 376 |
Margaret | 397 |
John Major 199097 | 437 |
Tony Blair 1997 | 476 |
The Inevitability | 527 |
Premiership for | 534 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Alec Anthony Appointments April Attlee Attlee's August bomb Britain British Butler Cabinet committee Cabinet government Cabinet meeting Cabinet ministers Cabinet Office Cabinet Room Cabinet Secretary Castle Chancellor Churchill Churchill's civil servants Civil Service colleagues Conservative constitutional Conversation crisis December decision Defence Douglas Hurd Douglas-Home Downing Street economic Eden's election entry European Falklands February files Foreign Secretary full Cabinet Harold Macmillan Harold Wilson Home House of Commons Ibid Inner Cabinet intelligence January Jim Callaghan John Major July June Labour later leader Lloyd Lord Macmillan Diary March Margaret Thatcher memoirs Michael Cockerell ministerial Muddling November nuclear October operations paper Parliament Parliamentary party Permanent Secretary Peter Hennessy Policy Unit political postwar PREM premier premiership Press Prime Minister Prime Minister's Principal Private Secretary Private information Queen resign Roy Jenkins secret senior September Soviet Suez Ted Heath told Tony Benn Tony Blair Treasury Whitehall