Click any step to jump to it - the lit step is the one showing below. Steady curbing of the prerogative, then a single restoration. Green = strengthened or expanded · Amber = mixed or contested · Red = weakened or curbed.
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What happened. The Blair government put military action in Iraq to a Commons vote; 139 Labour MPs voted against (the largest backbench rebellion in over 150 years).
What it shows. Established the convention that the Commons votes before troops are deployed - the war prerogative curbed. War-powers convention
What happened. The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 put treaty ratification on a statutory footing: ministers still negotiate and sign under the prerogative, but ratification now needs Parliament.
What it shows. The treaty-making prerogative curbed by a formal parliamentary role. Treaty oversight
What happened. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, a coalition measure, set five-year terms and removed the PM's power to call an election at will.
What it shows. The dissolution prerogative stripped from the executive. Dissolution removed
What happened. The Commons voted 285-272 against military action in Syria - the first government defeat on military action since 1782.
What it shows. The war-powers convention has real teeth - the prerogative to deploy was checked. Convention bites
What happened. In Miller 1, the Supreme Court ruled 8-3 that the government could not use the prerogative to trigger Article 50 without an Act of Parliament.
What it shows. The prerogative cannot be used to override rights granted by statute. Article 50 curbed
What happened. In Miller 2, the Supreme Court ruled 11-0 that Boris Johnson's five-week prorogation of Parliament was unlawful.
What it shows. The courts will strike down prerogative use that frustrates Parliament. Prorogation curbed
What happened. The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, under Boris Johnson, repealed the FTPA and returned the power to dissolve Parliament to the prerogative.
What it shows. The only clear reversal - a prerogative power handed back to the executive. Dissolution restored
Roll up and down: use the arrows, scroll or swipe inside the box, the up and down keys, or click any step in the arc above.
The long direction is curbing. From 2003 a war-powers convention took hold: the Commons expects a vote before troops are deployed, confirmed when it defeated the government over Syria in 2013 - the first such defeat since 1782. The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 gave Parliament a role in treaty ratification.
The courts joined in. Miller 1 (2017) blocked the use of the prerogative to trigger Article 50, and Miller 2 (2019) struck down an unlawful prorogation. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 had already removed the dissolution prerogative from the PM.
But the FTPA story shows the limit of all this. It was repealed in 2022 by an ordinary Act, handing the dissolution prerogative straight back. Without entrenchment, a curb on the prerogative is as easily undone as it was made.
The same events split by side. Build each paragraph around one point from each column, then judge.
The FTPA cycle is the whole argument in miniature: a curb created in 2011 and undone in 2022 shows curtailment is real but never entrenched.
For "Evaluate the view that prerogative powers have been significantly curtailed", this timeline gives both sides. The war-powers convention, CRaG, the FTPA and the Miller cases argue the prerogative has been curbed; the 2022 restoration and the fact that conventions are not law argue the curbs are reversible. End each paragraph with an interim judgement.
Keep the cases precise: Iraq vote 2003, CRaG 2010, FTPA 2011, Syria defeat 2013, Miller 1 2017, Miller 2 2019, Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022.