ABSTRACT
Superficially, a weak minister might seem a boon to No. 10: he can be manipulated, bullied and used as an agent rather than a colleague. In practice the opposite is true: a weak minister is a burden. The Prime Minister lacks the time or resources to take over a department full-time. A minister who mishandles problems, fails to tackle crises, lacks political flair, cannot handle his officials or puts up politically insensitive proposals only generates trouble. A notable example was Emmanuel Shinwell. Despite clear signals in late 1946, he refused to take advance precautions to avoid a fuel shortage or to give priority to power stations. Consequently when blizzards struck in early 1947 the government had to cut off electricity from industry in much of Britain and from all domestic consumers for 5 hours every day. The junior fuel minister, Gaitskell, and officials took charge, rationing and redistributing stocks under the supervision of a Cabinet committee chaired by a furious Attlee. Later that year Shinwell was demoted from the Cabinet and Gaitskell promoted to his place (Williams 1979).
