Name: The Blunders of Our Governments
ISBN: 9781780746180

Anthony King

Ivor Crewe

With unrivalled political savvy and a keen sense of irony, distinguished political scientists Anthony King and Ivor Crewe open our eyes to the worst government horror stories and explain why the British political system is quite so prone to appalling mistakes.

The Blunders of Our Governments

blunder/ˈblʌndə(r)/, n., A gross mistake; an error due to stupidity or carelessness. There are a handful of cock-ups that we remember all too well, from the poll tax to the Millennium Dome. However, the list is longer than most of us realize – and it’s growing. With unrivalled political savvy and a keen sense of irony, distinguished political scientists Anthony King and Ivor Crewe open our eyes to the worst government horror stories and explain why the British political system is quite so prone to appalling mistakes. You will discover why: • The government wasted up to £20 billion pounds in a failed scheme to update London’s Underground system. • Tens of thousands of single mothers were left in poverty without financial support from absent fathers. • Tony Blair committed the NHS to the biggest civilian IT project the world has ever seen, despite knowing next to nothing about computing. • The Assets Recovery Agency cost far more to run than it ever clawed back from the proceeds of organised crime. • The Coalition government is at least as blunder-prone as any of its predecessors. Groupthink, constantly rotating ministers and a weak parliament all contribute to wasted billions and illogical policy. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Informed by years of research and interviews with senior cabinet ministers and civil servants, this razor-sharp diagnosis of flawed government is required reading for every UK citizen. With its spirited prescriptions for more fool-proof policymaking, it will prove to be one of the most important political books of the decade.

Gavin

Insofar as anything is uncontroversial in politics – the most mired of intellectual backwaters – this sticks to uncontroversial blunders. So we only get the internally incoherent or screwy policies like Suez; poll tax; ERM Black Wednesday. (The book’s larger point is that there are more and more of these to come, because of the shape of Westminster’s gears.) 

They've a compressed, formal style – hiding their anger. So ministerial ignorance and snobbishness gets called "cultural disconnect". 

First chapter is a list of state successes (green belts, social housing boom and sale, Clean Air, seat belts, vaccinations, minimum wage, smoking ban, swine flu prep) included as a counter-libertarian tonic before launching into the peaky blunders. (This actually made my chest swell with hope or pride.)

The Blunders of Our Governments

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