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

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This was the domain of the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, the man who didn’t realise Dover was important for trade with Europe. He describes how MPs rarely stand up to governments with a clear majority—the whips take care of that. Interestingly his fundamental, but by no means his only, solution is proportional representation at general elections and indeed he makes a sensible case for this.

Not all is bad in Westminster - the standing committee system works well and encourages cooperation across parties, with chairs being elected by the committees themselves and thus serving more as moderators and consensus builders with genuine interests in the subject matter. Also, unlike many other countries in Europe and elsewhere, there is little devolution of powers to regions in England. Dunt also describes how an independent-minded Speaker of the House of Commons, notably John Bercow, can encourage independent-minded, rebellious Members by facilitating debates on amendments to legislation, emergency debates, and urgent questions, ignoring established rules when necessary—hence Bercow’s unpopularity with successive governments. Pay was frozen, they could earn more elsewhere, it was increasingly difficult to afford London housing on civil service salaries, and well-qualified people were not attracted. 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.

Forensic analysis of all that’s wrong with the Westminster system, building on Hardman’s Why We Get the Wrong Politicians and extrapolating it across Whitehall. It achieved some improvements before being replaced by the less effective Civil Service Learning Programme by the Conservative-led coalition government in 2011.

Ian Dunt is so good at opening up scandals that we ignore because they seem too complicated, bringing them alive and making us furious about them. Electronic voting should be introduced to allow the report stage more time for debate, reducing the power of the whips and increasing the potential for rebellion against government edicts. This system fulfils the basic purpose of democracy, currently absent at Westminster, which is to ensure parliament represents the broad spectrum of political opinion across the country. Its actions are normally cautious because the House of Commons could overhaul it, and there are limits to its powers: it can’t kill a bill, just delay it for one session.Dunt provides much valuable information about the extreme weaknesses of Westminster, which are not all widely known, and ideas for reform, but the book fails to express them with a clarity and resonance likely to arouse the popular response he seeks. In this work nobody escapes criticism including the Media, the Civil Service and the drafters of legislation. The recent book by journalist and author Ian Dunt provides a detailed and critical account of many aspects of the UK’s political system, including political parties and elections, parliament and the legislative process, the work of ministers and civil servants in Whitehall, and the role of the media. It cannot stop legislation included in the manifesto of the winning party or any bill concerning finance.

As Dunt describes, with a strong majority government it is hard to amend legislation at any stage of its passage through the House of Commons. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself. If no one party has absolute power then all parties need to co-operate with each other, and that makes for better government.If you are curious about why our political system is in the mess it is, and are concerned about the steady erosion of our democracy this book is a very good starting point. Having inherited a probation service that was creaking at the seams, he decided to privatise the whole thing, turning over the delicate business of managing ex-offenders to a selection of security firms that had no experience of that kind of work. Dunt believes that its chief weaknesses are failure to recognize the need for investment outside London, which could address regional inequalities, or to authorize large investments in the present which would yield savings in future. If you frequently find yourself baffled and infuriated by the goings-on in Westminster, this is the book for you.

I highly recommend everyone in the UK reads this, to understand what is happening in government on the mechanical level. How Westminster Works reveals the rot beneath the veneer of our much venerated parliament and organs of state.

The third chapter describes how, especially since the 1980s, PMs have increased control over their parties and government institutions. The final chapter of solutions might be a little breezey, airily acknowledging trade-offs rather than subjecting them to proper analysis, but it demonstrates effectively that there a large and small practical steps that a willing government or other actors can take. They are drafted by departments, controlled by Ministers, the most powerful of them drafting most bills. No 10’s control of special advisors must end and they should be appointed on the basis of expertise alone. He is right that public agitation has achieved change, including laws against race and sex discrimination.