2 February
Dear Daniel Finkelstein,
Sir, I read your article on the Prime Ministers Office becoming increasingly presidential. This has been a concern I have held for quite some time as I have seen the sacred power of Parliament wither to make way for Prime Ministers to exercise their unofficial mandate of absolute rule. I must stress that this is not confined to the current incumbent of No.10, whose theatrics are certainly unique unto him.
Jacob Rees-Mogg's presidential remarks are correct in being an observation, but are incoherent with constitutional fact. The 'presidentialising' of the PMs office is a highly unwelcome development in our political landscape. I do appreciate that a single figurehead is a easier frame of reference for the average voter - I imagine far more people know who the Prime Minister is than their very own local MP.
But as they say, no man is an island, and the same goes for Mr Johnson and his predecessors - I wonder what his predecessors whom are hung up on the wall in No.10s lobby would make of this. Power has become far too concentrated upon the centre, and all too often polices the PM claims are the jurisdiction of his cabinet colleagues. I remember Boris Johnsons conference closing speech where we got to see him at his usual bumbling but likable self. Afterwards I saw a commentary that there was a lack of policy announcements in his speech. But why should there be any? The PM is not supposed to be the great harbinger of government policy. Their job is the overall picture, the overall strategy, much like how the Chancellor is the overall financier.
Media exposure has I believe exasperated the presidential feel of No.10 by placing them on a pedestal on an almost daily basis, with ministers being mentioned relatively fleetingly whenever the news is relevant to them. It's not entirely the medias fault, the PMs have lapped it up when it comes to policy announcements, although simultaneously snookering themselves when it comes to scandals and mishaps.
The power pyramid is much too 'pointy', ministers whom actually enact policy need to brought further up with greater presence relative to the PM, and greater accountability. Parliament too needs its teeth back, to scrutinise those policies and hold the government answerable to them, on both sides of the house.
The PM, the cabinet, and even the committees are subservient to the House, the House that holds the vast bulk of our elected representatives in Parliament, not the reverse. It can be said that in a representative Parliamentary Democracy like ours, the MPs in the house have been elected by the people, for the people, and therefore they are the people - it is time that those people retake their rightful place in our democracy, and rubbish this president nonsense.
Dale Joseph Ferrier
Dale Joseph Ferrier