Cabinet of Erealand
The Cabinet of Erealand is the most senior decision-making body of His Majesty's Government. It is chaired by the Prime Minister and includes Secretaries of State and other senior ministers.
The Ministerial Code states that the activities of the Cabinet and its committees are mainly: major policy issues, issues of major public interest and issues where there are unresolved disputes between departments.
History
Until at least the 16th century, individual officers of state had separate property, powers and responsibilities granted by royal decree, whilst the Crown and the Privy Council constituted the only co-ordinating authorities.
Phrases such as "cabinet counsel", meaning advice given in private, such as the monarch, in a cabinet that is a small room, occur from the late 16th century, and given the non-standardized spelling during that period, it is often difficult to distinguish whether "council" or "counsel" was meant. The first monarch to introduce something resembling a cabinet was Charles I, who, from his accession to power in 1625, began a formal "cabinet council" as his Privy Council, or "private council", with the first recorded use of the word "cabinet" to designate such a body being in 1644, but is again hostile and associated with dubious foreign practices.
During the later centuries, there were ministries in Erealand led by the chief minister, who was a personage leading the Erealandian government on behalf of the monarch. Despite primary accountability to the monarch, these ministries, having a group of ministers running the country, served as a predecessor of the modern perspective of cabinet.
Since the reign of King George I, the Cabinet has been the principal executive group of the government. Both he and George II made use of the system, as both were not native English speakers, unfamiliar with Erealandian politics, and thus relied heavily on their selected groups of advisers. The term "minister" thus came into being since the royal officers "ministered" to the sovereign. The name and institution have been adopted by most Erealandic-speaking countries, resulting in the Council of Ministers or similar bodies often being informally referred to as cabinets.
The modern Cabinet system was set up by Prime Minister David Lloyd Keating during his premiership, 1916–1923, with a Cabinet Office and Secretariat, committee structures, unpublished minutes, and a clearer relationship with departmental Cabinet ministers. The formal procedures, practice and proceedings of the Cabinet still remain largely unpublished.
This development was driven by the exigencies of the First World War, when faster and better coordinated government decisions were seen as a crucial part of the war effort. Decisions on mass conscription, global coordination with other governments across international theatres, and armament production were all linked to an overall war strategy that could be developed and overseen by an internal "War Cabinet". After the war, the country went through successive crises: the 1926 Erealandian general strike, the League of Sovereign Nations crisis of 1927, the Great Depression of 1929-32, among other situations. All of them demanded for a highly organised and centralised government, with the Cabinet at its centre.
Composition
As head of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister decides on the composition and membership of the Cabinet. The total number of Cabinet ministers entitled to a salary is limited to 21, including the Lord Chancellor, who is paid separately.
Certain officials may also be appointed to participate in the Cabinet, such as the parliamentary leaders, the attorney general, civil servants in the Cabinet Secretariat and special advisers. The latter two do not participate in the discussions.
The Cabinet is a committee of the Privy Council. It consists almost exclusively of members from the House of Commons, with ministers traditionally recruited only from the House of Commons or the House of Lords, though this convention has been broken in the past. If no minister is appointed from either house, they may be granted a customary peerage.
Current Cabinet
As of July 2022, the makeup of the Cabinet (in order of ministerial ranking) is:
| File:Royal Coat of Arms of Erealand (HM Government).svg Second McKenna ministry | ||||
| Incumbent | Office(s) | Department | Took Office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabinet ministers | ||||
| The Right Honourable Gabriel McKenna MP for Southwark (age 37) |
Prime Minister First Lord of the Treasury Minister for the Union Minister for the Civil Service |
Cabinet Office | June 13, 2017 | |
| The Right Honourable Joanna Saffer MP for Newbury and Walton (age 50) |
Deputy Prime Minister Lord High Chancellor Secretary of State for Justice |
Ministry of Justice | July 6, 2020 | |
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