I have been reading ‘How Westminster Works … and why it doesn’t ‘by Ian Dunt and ‘Failed State’ by Sam Freeman. They make a clear case that the democratic process in Britain is failing to deliver the standard of governance we need. There are two major problems. Firstly, the systems of Government are characterised by short-term thinking, lack of expertise and a failure to delegate. Secondly, the excessively tribal nature of political parties means that there is little scrutiny and control of Government by Parliament.
It starts with the selection of candidate MPs by a small cabal of party members. In this process the ability to repeat party dogma is more important than experience, knowledge and proven management ability.
When they get to the Commons MPs are expected to support the Government at all times and not hinder the legislative process. Promotion to Minister depends on government patronage, stepping out of line is career threatening. As a result, the scrutiny of bills passing through parliament is extremely poor.
If they become a Minister, they are unlikely to have any formal expertise or training before they take up their posts. They are immediately overwhelmed with a daily workload of ‘red box’ decisions -typically 30-40 a day. Part of the problem is that the role of local government has been continually reduced over the past few decades. Successive governments have overcentralised decision making and the centre does not have the resources or expertise to manage local problems.
This lack of expertise is not alleviated by the civil service; they are generalists. If by accident they acquire some expertise and become good at their job, this is not appropriately rewarded. To get promotion they have to move onto another department. Senior civil servants are in post a similar short length of time to Ministers.
Because of the lack of expertise in the Ministries there is an overuse of consultancy and outsourcing. Much control has been handed over to profit seeking conglomerates: – social care, childcare and children’s homes have been left at the mercy of unguided markets.
The Prime Minister has unlimited power but not the resources to exercise it. The size of his office is limited by the size of 10 Downing Street. He is essentially trying to run the country from a private house. Successive Prime Ministers are so wedded to history and tradition that they refuse to set up a more appropriate office elsewhere.
Britain has been stagnating for years because the political system isn’t working. Ministers lack management talent. There is little expertise in Government and the focus is on short term achievement.
Because the effect of any change in the political system will be effective over a longer period and therefore will not improve re-election chances, no political party is interested in radical change. If you want proof that British democracy isn’t working you only have to consider the fact that we have had 5 Prime Ministers in 2 years since 2022: Johnson, May, Truss, Sunak and Starmer.
Change will not come from the current set of political parties. It will only come from a sustained challenge from the general public who are suffering the decline of Britain from a once ‘Great Power’ to an also-ran.