In Keith Dowding's recent 'Parliamentary Affairs' article (Dowding, 2013) he pours scorn on those who maintain that it is useful to speak of the 'presidentialisation' of British politics. Our edited volume 'The Presidentialization of Politics' (Poguntke and Webb, 2005) is one of those in the firing line.We should emphasise that there is a good deal in Dowding's article with which we do not take issue, not least because he either largely concurs with us about the developments affecting the British prime minister or because his attacks focus on versions of the presidentialisation argument to which we do not subscribe. But we offer here a brief rejoinder to the remaining issues which are relevant to our model.