- Publisher: Profile
- Year: 2020
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 336pp
- Illustrated: No
- Dimensions: 198x129mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.3kg
- ISBN: 9781788162197
- Product code: 518478
15 Minutes of Power
The Uncertain Life of British Ministers
Peter Riddell New Paperback
Postscript summary
All too often, UK ministers are only just getting to grips with their brief when they are moved on in the next reshuffle. Drawing on diaries and interviews with former ministers from both main parties, Peter Riddell reveals the pressures they face, explores their relations with civil servants, and exposes the systemic flaws that limit their effectiveness.
Product information
Full publisher description
Aside for the secretaries of state, those lofty roles at the Home Office, MOD, Exchequer, and Foreign office, the ministers of the UK are a cast of roles that expand, and contract based on the whims and political needs of the Prime Minister. Within their portfolios those MPs and Lords are immensely powerful - able to reshape whole sectors of British society, grant or refuse government contracts and planning permission, and intervene in matters throughout the country.
And yet, few members of the British Public could name every single minister and fewer still could say the extent of each minister's responsibilities. We like to imagine that they are competent, prepared, and entirely in control, and we hold them to standards as though they are. But they are often none of those things.
These men and women serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. Any misstep or scandal can invite media attention, public outcry, and their swift departure. At the same time, their resignations can shatter political alliances and bring down Prime Ministers and even governments. Their positions are, therefore, both immensely powerful and precarious. In Fifteen Minutes of Power, Peter Riddell draws on interviews with former ministers, conducted on behalf of the Institute of Government, to reveal the fraught existence of these powerful men and women.
And yet, few members of the British Public could name every single minister and fewer still could say the extent of each minister's responsibilities. We like to imagine that they are competent, prepared, and entirely in control, and we hold them to standards as though they are. But they are often none of those things.
These men and women serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. Any misstep or scandal can invite media attention, public outcry, and their swift departure. At the same time, their resignations can shatter political alliances and bring down Prime Ministers and even governments. Their positions are, therefore, both immensely powerful and precarious. In Fifteen Minutes of Power, Peter Riddell draws on interviews with former ministers, conducted on behalf of the Institute of Government, to reveal the fraught existence of these powerful men and women.
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product
https://www.psbooks.co.uk/15-minutes-of-power
518478
15 Minutes of Power
https://www.psbooks.co.uk/media/catalog/product/5/1/518478_495b6e19ef72ebc5477ed3b24956e742.jpg
5.99
5.99
GBP
InStock
/Non-Fiction/Categories/Politics, Philosophy & Economics
/Non-Fiction/Highlights
/Non-Fiction/Categories/Politics, Philosophy & Economics/Politics
/Almost Gone/Almost Gone Non-Fiction
All too often, UK ministers are only just getting to grips with their brief when they are moved on in the next reshuffle. Drawing on diaries and interviews with former ministers from both main parties, Peter Riddell reveals the pressures they face, explores their relations with civil servants, and exposes the systemic flaws that limit their effectiveness.
Paperback
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0
add-to-cart
rrp_info:£9.99
productId:66892
bic_code:JPP, JPQ
JPP, JPQ
£9.99
Peter Riddell
General
198x129mm
Profile
No
Paperback
