Why is the cabinet weak

Elsewhere, such authority would have been vested in both aviation and health. It is especially concerning that ignorance of the operation of government exists at the highest level of the government, amongst Cabinet ministers including the attorney general, who appear to be unfamiliar with the full scope of their responsibilities.

Benjamin Franklin, emerging from the Constitutional Convention in , was asked whether the United States of America would be a monarchy or a republic. Some recall that a founding father of our country, A. Hanna, frequently said that at the time of negotiation of the Bahamian independence order, the British delegation queried whether colleagues wished to be governed by Cabinet or a prime minister.

Our constitution vests authority in the Cabinet. It may not be far-fetched for us to ask now whether we are maintaining government by Cabinet. Furthermore, they resent offers of advice or assistance. They make policy pronouncements without knowing the ramifications.

The top person, such as the President, will probably make the final decisions. But he or she can't possibly do all the day-to-day work. The President of the United States delegates much work to the Cabinet. Each Cabinet member is the head of an executive department of the government. Usually, they meet together once a week or every other week. Other departments are no more blessed. Gavin Williamson has been uninspiring in a crucial role.

The education secretary has had months to devise a strategy for reopening schools but has not progressed beyond picking needless fights with unions. Even those who resent Michael Gove for the work he did as education secretary in the coalition years recognise an effective operator who directed his department towards policy implementation. The daily coronavirus briefing press conferences have been a showcase of absent talent.

These figures have been shrunk by the size of the crisis. It is easy to be beguiled by nostalgia. There was no golden age of all-heavyweight cabinets. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was sacked as international development secretary in for deceiving May over her clandestine meetings with top Israelis, and now faces allegations of serial bullying of her civil servants. There was a time when ordinary citizens could name most members of the cabinet, but no longer.

This lot are largely faceless. The last two, incidentally, were doctors whose insights would have been valuable in the present crisis. It is a cabinet appointed to do what it is told, which is why there is no room for experienced but potentially awkward figures such Jeremy Hunt , the former health and foreign secretary who challenged Johnson for the party leadership last year; Greg Clark, the former business secretary; or Geoffrey Cox, the former attorney general.

At its first meeting Johnson conducted a bizarre call-and-response exercise in which cabinet members dutifully chanted the numbers of new hospitals, nurses, buses and police officers he planned to deliver. The subliminal message was that they were not there to question policy or use their own judgement.