...move was symbolically important, but also had a practical impact on the inner workings of central government. The Cabinet Secretary gained significantly greater proximity to the Prime Minister, although access...
...that the Prime Minister was the central figure within Cabinet. However, the whole system rested on understandings – no Act of Parliament defined the institutions of Cabinet and Prime Minister....
![Extract of the draft note from 2 January 1917 on 10 Downing Street headed paper which reads 'To: The Private Secretary, the Prime Minister has decided, with a view to keeping himself in close touch with the several departments, to establish a ['Secretariat' is crossed out and replaced by 'Department'] in connection with Office of the First Lord of the Treasury. The following gentlemen have been appointed to act as secretaries to the ['First Lord of the Treasury' is crossed out and replaced by 'new Department']](https://history.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/01/edited-e1483652073427.jpg)
...predecessor at No.10 Herbert Asquith. Central to the new approach Lloyd George sought to take was an overhaul at the centre of government. Forming a slimmed down War Cabinet he...
...fulfil the long held desire of England’s medieval monarchs to rule as kings in France. Henry V enthroned: central part of the front side of his Golden Seal, 1416. The...
...for Marshall Aid through a Republican controlled Congress. Europe divided Believing, with some justification, itself to be the greatest victim and victor of the Second World War, the Soviet Union...
...departments not considered central to the war effort lent staff to ‘front-line’ departments like the War Office and the Admiralty. The General Register Office (GRO), responsible for the civil registration...
...early as summer 1917. Yet it would take until 1919 and a severe epidemic before this was established, and the nation’s health would come under closer central government scrutiny under...
...Central Office, for information and back-channel diplomacy. Neville Chamberlain, @wikimedia Commons Eden was also confident in his own judgement, encouraged in this by his FO officials, who followed the line...
...were central to a ‘patriot’ position from the 1730s onwards. Henry Pelham and the Duke of Newcastle found Pitt’s comments tactically useful in seeking to moderate the interventionist instincts of...
...its Prime Ministerial occupants over the centuries. Features range widely over personalities and private lives, domestic and international politics, and challenges and successes, providing new insights into how the central...