DirectgovKids

PM for a Day

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be the Prime Minister? In the ‘Prime Minister for a Day’ activity you will find out. You will learn about the role of the Prime Minister as you do the job for the day. Just like the Prime Minister, you will have to choose policies on a range of key issues. However, not everyone will agree with your choices, and over the course of the day, you will meet people who will challenge your decisions. Will you change your mind or stick to your original policies?

Definitions

  • Policy: A policy is a plan of action proposed by someone in power or someone standing in an election. A Prime Minister has to have policies on a wide range of issues.
  • Parliament: The group of people that make a country’s laws, usually chosen by the people of that country in an election.
  • Houses of Parliament: The building in London where the British Parliament meets. It is made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
  • The House of Commons: The place in London where Members of Parliament meet. It is located in the Houses of Parliament. There are 646 MPs in the House of Commons, one for each part of the country. MPs in the House of Commons talk about and vote on new laws or what to spend money on in our country.
  • The House of Lords: The House of Lords is also located in the Houses of Parliament. It is made up of nearly 700 members that have been made members for life by the prime minister or have inherited their membership. The House of Lords checks on the work of the House of Commons, talks about new laws that have been suggested by the House of Commons and can block or veto a law if they don’t agree with it.
  • Member of Parliament (MP): Someone chosen or elected to represent an area of the country in the British Parliament.
  • General election: At a general election, all MPs stand for re-election and every constituency across the country chooses between the available candidates. General elections usually happen every four to five years. The political party with the largest number of MPs becomes the government.
  • The Prime Minister: The leader of a government; the person in charge of running a country.
  • The Cabinet: the most important people in the government, responsible for running the country and advising the Prime Minister
  • The Leader of the Opposition: The Leader of the Opposition is the leader of the second largest political party in the House of Commons. Their job is to question and criticise the government.

Choosing a policy

Why not imagine that you are Prime Minister for a Day? First of all, you have to work out what your policies are. We have provided some sample policies below, but you might prefer to think of your own. We have chosen six key policy areas: health, education, transport, the environment, sport and culture, and the emergency services. We have given three possible policies for each. Choose one policy for each area.

Your emergency services policy could be:

  • Increase the number of police on the beat
  • Increase the number of ambulances for hospitals
  • Invest in new fire engines and equipment for fire fighters

Your education policy could be:

  • Make the school day finish at 1pm
  • Make sure that every school has a swimming pool
  • Free school dinners for every pupil

Your health policy could be:

  • Ban junk food advertisements on TV
  • Raise the No Smoking age from 16 to 21
  • Raise the amount of tax on alcohol

Your environment policy could be:

  • Make all fur trading illegal
  • Ban all cars in town centres
  • Double the number of parks and nature reserves

Your transport policy could be:

  • Double the number of cycle lanes
  • Give everyone under 16 free travel on public transport
  • Lower the speed limit from 70 to 60 miles per hour

Your culture and sport policy could be:

  • Make all museums and galleries free to enter
  • Bid for Birmingham to host the Commonwealth Games in 2022
  • Build more local sports centres

Write down the six policies you have chosen. After each policy, write down your reasons for choosing this policy. Why is this issue particularly important to you?

Defending your policies

Now it’s time to debate your policies.

Emergency services

Imagine you are in your office and the Mayoress of London comes to see you. She says that you should spend your emergency services budget on the river police in London instead. She says that the river police do an important job and that they are currently underfunded. The river police check suspicious vessels, escort important boats and ships, and carry out underwater searches.

What do you want to do? Do you agree with the Mayoress? If you agree, explain to the Mayoress why you’re going to fund the river police. If you disagree, explain to the Mayoress why your chosen policy is more important.

Education

Now you have to defend your education policy in the House of Commons. The Leader of the Opposition is opposite you. The Leader of the Opposition is in charge of the second biggest party in the House of Commons. His job is to question and criticise you.

He says that your education policy is impractical and a waste of money. He says that you should spend the money on increasing teachers’ salaries. If you increase teachers’ salaries, then they will work harder, and children will learn more. If teachers feel underpaid, then they are more likely to leave their jobs or give uninspiring lessons.

What do you want to do? Do you agree with the Leader of the Opposition? If you agree, explain to the Leader of the Opposition why you will increase teacher’s salaries. If you disagree, explain to the Leader of the Opposition why you are sticking to your original policy.

Health

Now imagine you are having lunch with a group of business leaders. They disagree with your health policy. Whether you are banning junk food ads, raising the No Smoking age, or increasing tax on alcohol, these will all have a bad effect on the economy. Companies that make junk food, alcohol and/or cigarettes will all lose money and workers could lose their jobs.

Your health policy should be something that doesn’t affect business. You should consider putting more sports fields in parks. This would encourage children and adults to play more sport. You should also abolish tax on sports equipment so that it’s cheaper for people to buy. This would also promote exercise and healthy activity.

What do you want to do? Do you agree with the business leaders? If you agree, explain to the businessmen and women why you are going to put more sports fields in parks and abolish tax on sports equipment. If you disagree, explain to the business leaders why you are sticking to your original policy.

Environment

Now imagine you are checking your Inbox. The PM receives thousands of e-mails every day. Today he is reading a group of e-petitions from a group of schoolchildren. They are asking you to reconsider your environment policy. They want you to focus on green energy. They say you should put solar panels on the roof of every school. This way, schools would be able to generate their own clean energy.

What do you want to do? Do you agree with these e-petitions? If you agree, explain to the children why you are going to put solar panels on the roof of every school. If you disagree, explain why you are sticking to your original policy on the environment.

Transport

Now imagine you are driving to a music awards ceremony to present one of the trophies. However, on the way, you get stuck in heavy traffic. Your driver starts to talk to you about your transport policy. He says that you should think about changing your current strategy. He says you should increase tax on petrol to put people off driving everywhere. This would make the roads less congested. It would also encourage people to switch to cheaper, greener fuel.

What do you want to do? If you agree with your driver, explain why you are going to increase tax on petrol. If you disagree with your driver, explain why you are sticking to your original policy.

Culture and Sport

It is the evening and you are at the music awards ceremony. However the presenter shows you a video about new music in the UK. She says you should change your culture and sport policy. You should spend your culture and sport budget on new music in the UK. You should give schools more money to spend on musical instruments and music equipment. You should ensure there are enough music venues where bands can play. This would help to make Britain the music capital of the world again.

What do you want to do? If you agree with the awards presenter, explain why you are going to spend your culture and sport budget on music equipment and music venues. If you disagree with the presenter, explain why you are sticking to your original policy.

Review

Now look at your original list of six policies. Which ones have you kept and which ones have you changed? What do you think are the advantages of listening to other people’s views? When do you think it is important to change your mind? When do you think it is important to stick to your original views?

Class debate

Now ask your teacher to choose one policy area. Then write the original three policies from this area on the board. By a show of hands, work out how many pupils support each policy.

Then choose three pupils to come to the front of the class: one to represent each of the three policies. The pupils should ideally believe in the policies they are representing. Then ask the pupils to defend their policy to the rest of the class. They should be given a minute to put their views across. Then they should take questions (for five minutes) from the other two pupils and the rest of the class. The teacher should try to guide the debate.

Each of the three pupils should be given a minute to defend their policy and then take questions for five minutes.

Then the teacher should take another show of hands at the end of the debate. Which is the most popular policy now? Has it changed?

Key Questions

Finally, think about the following questions:

  • What does the Prime Minister do?
  • Why is it important for the PM to have policies?
  • Why do you sometimes need to change or reconsider policies?
  • If you disagree with something the PM is doing, how might you try to change his or her mind?

Where would you like to go next?