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

[modellingman]

It starts in a room in a constituency somewhere, behind closed doors, with partisan members selecting partisan candidates for their partisan qualities and without any assessment of their ability to scrutinise legislation. It funnels those candidates into an election system that is designed to give one of the parties a large majority on the basis of a winner-takes-all whitewashing of a pluralist electorate. And then it subordinates them to its will, with no encouragement for independent thought or specialist knowledge.

It establishes around the prime minister a dysfunctional management system that then faces no constitutional restraints, so it is able to broadcast its broken decisions across the country. It hands that prime minister the power to move ministers as often as they like, which they then use at eye-watering speed to consolidate their own position and thereby further discourage effective governance. The ministers are not chosen for their competence or their knowledge, but for the support they provide to the party leader. They are then buried in work, while experiencing strong incentives for short-term tactics over long-term strategy.

It checks those ministers through a Treasury department that is itself compromised by a scrutiny deficiency and cannot therefore do its job properly. And it supports them with civil servants who are moved so quickly they cannot sensibly advise on what is happening, and would be undermined by a spad caste even if they could.

This structure is overseen by a media that is experiencing an advanced stage of financial meltdown, leading it to impose working practices that prevent journalists from doing their job effectively, in the face of a political system that is intent on reducing their coverage to personal power plays rather than policy assessment.

The legislative products of this mangled system are then often imposed through statutory instruments, which sidestep Parliament altogether. And even when they are not, they proceed through a Commons Chamber that has been asphyxiated by the government, so that it is unable to do its job properly.

So then, finally, when the Lords tries to take a stand against government power and poor legislation, it finds that it is doing so alone, without any allies in the place it is trying to strengthen.

This happens because of the way we have allowed our political system to develop. We sat complacently, patting ourselves on the back for the quality of British democracy. And while we did so, it fell apart from underneath us.


Above are the final few paragraphs from the analysis in Ian Dunt's book How Westminster Works ... and Why It Doesn't.

This should be essential reading for anyone who has an interest in UK and English politics. This well-written and very readable book was developed from over a hundred interviews with MPs, ministers, civil servants, journalists, commentators and others. It sets out a systematic analysis of the various elements that make up the Westiminster system of democratic government.

It is organised around ten chapters dealing with everything from the electoral system to how policy is developed and scrutinised by Parliament. Thrown in along the way are a couple of major policy blunders from recent years which act to illustrate the analysis that follows.

Ultimately, though it is not an optimistic read as the summary paragraphs above illustrate. Whilst Dunt includes a final section which pulls together some suggestions for change, I am not convinced I will see much improvement in my lifetime. As an explainer, though, I found it well worth the read and learnt a fair bit from it.

modellingman

[Dod101]

Thanks for that. And from a practical point of view, Rory Stewart’s recent book gives the background from one of the few grounded and I imagine honest MPs. I commented on it on this forum recently.

Dod

[modellingman]

Thanks for that. And from a practical point of view, Rory Stewart’s recent book gives the background from one of the few grounded and I imagine honest MPs. I commented on it on this forum recently.

Dod

Indeed you did and I shall shortly be downloading a copy to while away some idol moents over the next week or so. I noted your comments about MP selection and this is an area that Dunt covers in one of his chapters. It will be interesting to see how the two compare on both this and other aspects of the political system.

modellingman