The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision making body of Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers. The Cabinet is the ultimate decision-making body of the executive. But this Cabinet system did not shape in today’s form overnight. According to Sidney Low, “Cabinet is the responsible executive having the complete control of the administration of the general direction of national business, but exercising this vast power under the strict supervision of the representative Chamber to which it is accountable for all its acts and omissions.”
According to Prof Mounro, “Cabinet may be briefly defined as the body of royal advisers Chosen by the Prime Minister in the name of the crown, with the approval a majority in the House of Commons.”
The initiation of the word ‘Cabinet’
Francis Bacon, a famous Chronicler, writer first mentioned the word ‘Cabinet ‘in the 17th century. He used the word to denote the committee of the Privy Council. In addition to ‘Cabinet’ another word was used during the reign of Charles Ӏ known as cabinet council. The special persons or group of people with whom king Charles Ӏ sat on the Privy Council known as ‘Cabinet Council.’ After the execution of the king Charles Ӏ, Charles ӀӀ sat on the throne and crowned through restoration in 1660. He was from the House of Stuart and during his reign, there was also something like cabinet known as ‘CABAL’ were a group of small bodies and his five selected advisors. The word ‘CABAL’ formed by picking up the initials of these five people’s name and their names were
Clifford Arlington Buckingham Ashley Louderable