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Chapter 4 - The Transformational Prime Ministers, 1806–2021

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2021

Anthony Seldon
Affiliation:
University of Buckingham
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Summary

The prime minister cannot be understood from studying a list of powers written down in laws or documents but only by looking at what they did in flesh and blood. Not all prime ministers are equal. Chapter 3 established that only two of the fourteen prime ministers between 1721 and 1806 left an enduring impact on the office, and in this chapter, we consider the other six who defined the office as ‘agenda changers’. They are the creators of the office of prime minister. All eight – two in the eighteenth century, three in the nineteenth, and three in the twentieth – carved out what the office of prime minister means, and shaped the office in their own image. After these ‘agenda changers’ ceased to be prime minister, their successors over the years that followed either tried to be like them, or tried deliberately to distance themselves from them: but none could escape their long shadow.

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Chapter
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The Impossible Office?
The History of the British Prime Minister
, pp. 95 - 135
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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