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“... it is difficult to think too ill. The protracted unmanning of Eden in Churchill’s overwhelming shadow is painfully laid bare. The key moment came with Churchill’s visit to America in June 1942 and the King’s insistence that he name his successor in case of mishap. Churchill duly handed the King a letter in which he advised that Eden be Premier in his ...”

“... Harry was tied up, wrapped in a sack, locked in a trunk; the trunk was then placed inside a cabinet with a curtain across the front of it. Dash would announce the trick, sneak inside the cabinet and clap three times: on the third clap the curtain would burst open to reveal Harry, who had liberated himself in ...”

“... the diary at the end of July 1916 by claiming that ‘Henry’s position in the country and in the cabinet is stronger than it has ever been.’ Despite or partly because of all her defects, the diaries never cease to entertain, and they turn out to be remarkably enlightening too, if not always in the advertised way. Margot Tennant had always possessed the ...”

“... Dyson’s Case more than a century ago: ‘If ministerial responsibility were more than the mere shadow of a name, the matter would be less important, but as it is, the courts are the only defence of the liberty of the subject against departmental aggression.’Despite Lord Reed’s astute reasoning my vote would go with the majority on the ground I began ...”

“... to support him in the ‘khaki election’ if he were first shown a list of the proposed next Cabinet. Rothermere – described by one who met him that year as ‘a perfect specimen of the plutocratic cad’ – was brought round with the offer of a viscountcy. But ‘squaring’, even on the Lloyd George scale, would never again secure the reliable ...”

“... has become the dominant characteristic. The typical politician today, whether minister, shadow minister or ‘adviser’, proceeds from student politics (often with a politics degree), to political consultancy or a think-tank, to ‘research’ or the staff of an active politician. He or she is ‘good at politics’ – which means being good at ...”

“... separation of powers, but the steps taken by Secretary-General Sharma have cast their own baleful shadow over the CHOGM. Sharma, who is not himself legally trained, began by inviting two senior jurists to tell him whether removal of the chief justice was consistent with Commonwealth values and principles. Their responses were unequivocal. Jeffrey Jowell, a QC ...”

“... and political significance at first sight quite disproportionate to his achievements. He was a cabinet minister for only a short time, though definitely a coming man; he was held responsible by many for Labour’s defeat in the last election; and he was an exceptionally cautious leader of the opposition. Why, then, this ebullition of sentiment? His ...”

“... him no friends at home, and the timing and terms of the referendum were set, not by him nor his cabinet, but by the astute and clear-sighted strategists of the European Research Group (ERG) in the Commons, implacable adversaries of what the EU had become. Once the campaign began, two of his leading cabinet ministers ...”

“... what to do with the bride, and what to do with the dowry. The Middle East still lives in the shadow of the decisions Israel made – and those it didn’t – in the first few years of the now 45-year-old occupation. The story of Israeli policy in the late 1960s has been told before, by Tom Segev and Gershom Gorenberg among others. But no one has ...”

“... Shortly before the last election, a cabinet minister made an indiscreet prophecy over lunch. After Mrs Thatcher, he said, the Conservative Party, like a great river, would return again to its ancient course. When the past decade is far enough behind us for biography to become history, it will be interesting to see how many chapters the years alter Downing Street will comprise in any authoritative work on Margaret Thatcher, how far the Thatcherite silt will shape the river that flows beyond her ...”

“... to enumerate the Director-General’s varied vocations and avocations. One can understand the shadow of irritation which momentarily passed over what must ordinarily be a serene brow when, at the annual dinner of HM Customs and Excise, he was accused of being a banker, which he has never been. The mistake, however, is understandable if not pardonable, for ...”

“... method employed for what was, in the late 16th century, an increasingly popular if minor type of cabinet picture: the still-life of fruit or flowers. There is good reason to suppose that Caravaggio first attracted notice as a painter of such works and although only one survives that is certainly by him, a number of his early pictures (the so-called ...”

“... my father’s – teetotal father, who had been a colleague of Churchill’s in Asquith’s Cabinet: ‘I have often thought that your father would have been a happier man if he had taken an occasional glass of whisky, as I do.’ Derry is ebulliently confident of soon tasting the fruits of high office.27 March 1997. Seated next to John Prescott at ...”

“... separation of powers properly denies the judiciary a voice in government, so that unless a senior cabinet minister speaks for the justice system the equilibrium between the limbs of the state is jeopardised. The problem was that, until 2005, the Lord Chancellor wore three hats: speaker of the Upper House, cabinet minister ...”