ABSTRACT
This chapter recognizes a number of operational and institutional similarities between the Cabinet and the Shadow Cabinet. Indeed, it has been suggested that the Opposition requires almost exactly the same qualities a Government itself requires. The unity of the Shadow Cabinet is increasingly being considered as important as that of the Government by both the press and television, differences of opinion and hints of real or apparent splits being rapidly and ruthlessly examined. This acceptance of collective responsibility has recently been described as ‘one of the most important elements in the twentieth-century development of the Shadow Cabinet’. The Party Conferences provide an annual opportunity for a gathering of all the various sections of the Labour Party. Members of the Shadow Cabinet and the N.E.C. attend the Conferences in anex officio capacity. A considerable amount of time and energy is now also devoted by small groups and committees within the P.L.P. to considering initial policy drafts.
