ABSTRACT
One common theme is that although authors have 'cabinet government', the Cabinet as such, in full assembly, is not an effective body. It is thus evident that some of the most important policy decisions were taken by small groups of ministers and then presented to full cabinet meetings either when it was too late for them to be rescinded or on the assumption that rejection was out of the question. It dealt with matters brought before it by the Prime Minister, and it deliberated after being fully briefed by the Cabinet Secretariat. Wilson told Callaghan that he hoped there would be no question of resignation, but dismissed him from the Inner Cabinet 'which had to work on a basis of close trust in the very difficult situation authors were facing'. The most persistent argument of the 1960s revolved around the question whether or not the cabinet government of the British system is being replaced by prime ministerial government.
