Edexcel A Level Politics Paper 2 (9PL0 02) 7th June 2023 [Exam Chat]

Yes but there are better examples of strong control over cabinets for extended periods such as Margaret Thatcher where she has been described as having a presidential style of leadership and has had a lot of examples of dominating her cabinet. Compared to Truss who had a good grip on her cabinet for 3/4 of her tenure. Yes Truss relied on Hunt but it wasn't to the point where she didn't hold power over him where maybe a better example could be Gordon Brown and Blair in a power struggle nearer the end of Blairs tenure where Brown as you know eventually became the next Labour PM

on the spec it is under

The powers of the Prime Minster and the Cabinet to dictate events and determine policy.
• Students must study the influence of one Prime Minister from 1945 to 1997 and one post-1997 Prime Minister.
• Students may choose any pre-1997 and any post-1997 Prime Minister, provided that they study them in an equivalent level of detail, covering both events and policy, with examples that illustrate both control and a lack of control.


So you need to have a good understanding of examples of a really powerful PM who control their Cabinets agenda and political will and examples of PMs who have been dominated by their cabinet and are at the will of them

Yes but there are better examples of strong control over cabinets for extended periods such as Margaret Thatcher where she has been described as having a presidential style of leadership and has had a lot of examples of dominating her cabinet. Compared to Truss who had a good grip on her cabinet for 3/4 of her tenure. Yes Truss relied on Hunt but it wasn't to the point where she didn't hold power over him where maybe a better example could be Gordon Brown and Blair in a power struggle nearer the end of Blairs tenure where Brown as you know eventually became the next Labour PM

Ah cool. Just curious abt the level of detail really. I've written cabinet essays in the past and I just don't see why you would limit yourself to just 2 pms. But ofc it depends, could get a question asking you to compare pre 97 and post 97 pms power hypothetically so it makes sense

well in October 2020 this question was asked 'Evaluate the view that since 2010 the Uk has returned to a cabinet government' which is quite narrow so they could ask a question like this so its good to have knowledge of a few different PMs

(Off-topic) - do ppl think that imr/cmr and supreme court operating principles (independence/neutrality) realistically won't come up again this year?

'To what extent do feminists agree that the personal is political?' has never explicitly come up.

Which two PM case studies are best to use? I currently have Thatcher and May but I’m thinking maybe Boris or even Truss would be better idk

Thank you, do u have any more questions similar to that?

If you dont no worries

How likely is it that the questions will all be on different areas of component 2, as for paper 1 non of the questions really overlapped topics and I'm wondering if they've ever done that before or if they're specifically being nice for our year. But I'm aware that the paper 2 topics are more interlinked so idrk any ideas?

Does anyone have any idea on how to answer this question- Evaluate the view that exiting the EU has had the greatest impact on the relationship between the executive and legislative branches since 2010?

Para 1 - Greatest impact due to parliamentary votes / Supreme Court Rulings
Para 2 - However, other developments such as Fixed term parliament act had a greater impact(until 2022)
Para 3 - Greater impact due to the constitutional questions about executive powers such as Royal Prerogative powers
Para 4 - Austerity measures i.e. budgets / policy making
Para 5 - Greater impact due to the shift in decision making powers => no longer ruled by eu over specific policy areas
Para 6: shifts in party control => coalition governments compared to majority governments

Idk how good those points would be, that question is v difficult but thats probs the route i'd take, let me know if it makes sense or not because i dont want my plan to be wrong either lol

‘Evaluate the impact the EU has had on the UK.”
i don’t know though that might be too broad

Just revising the development of the constitution eg the magna carta, bill of rights ect but realistically how would they ask you a 30 marker on any of this stuff? is it worth skipping

I think that is just a little background knowledge to show our constitution is uncodified - any question on constitution would more likely look at if it needs reform or if reforms so far have been adequate.