In England too, the times of the traditional all-men's teams seem to be a thing of the past. The youthful, dynamic Prime Minister Tony Blair is rejuvenating the Cabinet and making it, in a manner of speaking, more feminine. Five women have been included in the government. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam is in charge of running one of the most difficult departments. Immediately after the elections, the spotlight was focused on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, who thoroughly reformed the English finance system. The main task before Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is to define the relationship with the EU afresh. Co-operation instead of confrontation is the new motto.

100 government positions to be allocated

In England, the government consists of Ministers (of the inner Cabinet), Non-Cabinet Ministers, Junior Ministers and Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPSs). The inner Cabinet, which is the actual decision- making organ of the government, currently consists of 22 ministers who normally meet at least once a week. The government as a whole is, however, much bigger. There are about 100 posts which must be occupied. The inner Cabinet is the arena in which the most important decisions are made. It lays down the agenda of the day for Parliament, acts as in intermediary for the difficulties and problems between the departments, co-ordinates the government politics and specifies the political thrust of the party in Parliament and in public.

How do the decision-makers work?

Since a codified, defined constitution does not exist, the relationship of the political institutions with each other depends on conventions, laws passed by Parliament and court judgements. The government depends on Parliament and is also confirmed by it. Other conventions which are followed by every government are, on the one hand, "Ministerial Responsibility" (the minister is responsible for his department; he must provide Parliament with answers and information related to it) and on the other hand, "Collective Responsibility" (the Cabinet as a whole is responsible for the decisions which have been taken). An individual minister cannot be overthrown by Parliament. The Cabinet secretariat is the heart of the government machinery. It prepares meetings, distributes important papers to the ministers, processes the decisions that have been taken, forwards them to the departments and monitors their implementation. The Prime Minister has his own Private Office, which helps him in preparation. Some advisers from the Private Office have attained very high profiles, e.g. Bernard Ingham, press spokesperson under Thatcher. Other means of communication behind the scenes are the Policy Unit, a sort of kitchen cabinet providing an arena for informal conversations between the decision-makers and formal inter-depart- mental meetings.

How do I become a minister?

Naturally, there is no patent formula. But there are certain basic pre-requisites. A potential ministerial candidate has normally been a member of the House of Commons for some time and, in this time, climbed a little up the career ladder. He might have been a Junior Minister earlier, for example, or prepared for his dream job as a member of the Shadow Cabinet. A certain amount of political savvy, the ability to get along in Parliament, a lot of organisational talent and a dose of administrative competence provide further help on the way into the inner Cabinet. If he also fulfils certain intra-party quotas and has not been involved in too many sex-scandals, nothing stands in the way of his becoming a minister

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