How significant is Cabinet?

Tony Blair:

Tony Blair was an extremely powerful PM with a huge parliamentary majority.

Blair completely disregarded cabinet, taking important decisions on his own or in a dual executive with Brown. Examples of such decisions are giving the Bank of England control over interest rates without informing Cabinet and going ahead with the Millenium Dome even though the overall opinion from Cabinet was the opposite,  apart from Gordon Brown .

Tony Blairs style of government was described by Mo Mowlan as presidential. This can be attributed to:

• Tony Blair's extensive use of 'sofa government'  to make decisons.
• Blair's cabinet meeting lasting on average 30 mins.
• His exapansion of the PM's Office (the Downing Street Machine) 
• His at best poor attendance of Parliament, seen by critics to present himself as seperate from the legislature to demonstrate a seperation of powers that a President would have unlike the fusion that is present in British politics.
• INcreased importance of foreigh affairs.

Margret Thatcher:

Margret Thatcher was an extremely dominat PM, she believed that…