How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't

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Nick Clegg is here, for instance, reflecting on how remarkably little time he spent as deputy prime minister “worrying about getting stuff through” parliament.

Westminster is broken - New Statesman Westminster is broken - New Statesman

He also appointed a committee under Lord Fulton, a former university Vice Chancellor who had held a number of public offices, to advise on reform of the civil service, to improve its expertise. Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.

They have to cope with party animosity over policy disagreements, and, increasingly, with social media attacks.

Ian Dunt’s How Westminster Works … and Why It Doesn’t Ian Dunt’s How Westminster Works … and Why It Doesn’t

g., the decision to send asylum seekers to Rwanda—government measures can be blocked or delayed by the courts on appeals by protesters outside politics, and “lefty lawyers” as politicians disparage them. His judgments are based upon over 100 conversations with politicians, including Neil Kinnock, Theresa May, Tony Blair, Andy Burnham, Liz Truss, and Boris Johnson, officials including John Bercow, peers, civil servants, journalists, and more, and scrutiny of a mass of books and official reports. The civil servants dealing with evacuation requests had no knowledge of Afghanistan, and the leader of the team referred to Afghans as “Afghanis”, the name of the currency. They included Richard Titmuss and Brian Abel-Smith from the LSE to apply their expertise in pensions policy.A centrally controlled parliament has become less attractive to people able to earn a better living in other ways. In this seminar the author will presented some of his key arguments, before responding to questions and comments from a panel of experts and the online audience.

Westminster – and make MPs How the whips actually control Westminster – and make MPs

Increasingly, they were moved around departments, no longer building up experience relevant to one department. The central mechanism for enforcing the compliance of MPs is the Whips’ Office – the surveillance and disciplinary system for parliamentary votes. Things that work are the House of Lords and Select Committees, imperfectly, but they “encourage the best behaviour rather than the worst” (p. But, contrary to widespread belief, ministers are rarely held to account for failed policies, such as the probation reform, but rather for failing to observe government policies.The book is at its most illuminating when it focuses on one of the least scrutinised power blocs in the UK: the civil service. As Dunt describes, Harold Wilson in his 1964–1970 government was anxious to improve government expertise to match and advance the technical and technological skills of the modern world, to assist his aim to develop the “white heat of technology” through his new Ministry of Technology, and to revive the flagging British economy. It also fails to control the persistent political use of Budgets, including the long-established Conservative practice of reducing taxes before elections. No 10’s control of special advisors must end and they should be appointed on the basis of expertise alone. This combined with a slow “drip-feed” of crossbench experts has ensured that no party has since held overall control, despite Boris Johnson’s best efforts.