In one of my first podcasts I reviewed Ian Dunt’s book How to be a Liberal. He has now written a stunning new volume entitled How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn’t.
There are four things at the heart of this book which any follower of organisational theory will understand straight away and which explain why our governments are ineffective and have been for the last two decades. The first is poor quality of people; the second is trying to work in the most incredibly outdated physical environment that is not conducive to good behaviour; the third is a toxic culture, irrespective of party; and the last is outdated systems and processes that fail to provide leaders with the good intelligence and options that they need. The summa of this is a defensive mindset in which it is better to come out top dog rather than to do the right thing.
Dunt is a very good writer. He breaks the book down into easily digestible chunks, and come the end he revisits each chunk and makes some suggestions as to how things can be improved in a very practical way. It is a good way to start a discussion that involves a wider base of people than is usual when trying to pick over the blunders of our governments. But he does do a very clever thing at the outset to get you in the mood for what follows and that is to present a case study of Chris Grayling, the man dubbed failing Grayling by the press for very good reason. This is a brilliant and forensic analysis of how one man managed to drive through policies that were wrong, badly thought out, and ultimately fatal to some individuals during his time as Secretary of State for Justice. It is a well told story that left me gaping with astonishment as I realised that it wasn’t just Grayling’s ineptitude that allowed bad things to happen, it was also the complete failure of the checks and balances which it would be reasonable to assume were effective and in place to prevent them.
The most damning conclusion of this opening section is not that Grayling was a dangerous idiot; rather it is that he is all too typical of modern ministerial talent and the system’s failure to manage it. In short there are lots of Failing Graylings in modern politics; he was just unfortunate in having a surname that lent itself so beautifully to alliterative scorn. Later in the book there is a description of how Dominic Raab was equally inept and destroyed many more lives with his dithering over the evacuations from Aghanistan. But he was lucky that his surname did not lend itself to scornful sobriquet and since the publication of Dunt’s book he has anyway resigned with an astonishing lack of grace.
There is so much in this book to enlighten and appal. Probably one of the worst is the description of what goes on in Westminster on a daily basis and how even reasonable and talented people are reduced to mere foot soldiers whose promotion is not dependent on being any good but on being willing to follow orders. In this it is clear that Dunt benefited from some scrupulous interviewing and the ability to make comments, many of them attributable, that blow open the inner workings of our so-called democracy and the violence and bullying that is involved. The Whips come in for some particularly harsh treatment as being little better than the dogs in Orwell’s Animal Farm, and willing to rip the throat out of the career of any aspiring backbencher from the moment they make their maiden speech. Which is, incidentally, not their own but directed by the whips.
The machinations at the centre of power are no better. It is believed that Game of Thrones was based on the wars of the roses but it could just as easily have been modelled on what goes on inside number ten as ministers jostle for position, weaknesses are ruthlessly exposed, scores settled and political blood spilt. There is one section where Peter Mandelson says that he was quite happy to swop a palatial office for a broom cupboard simply because he could get at Tony Blair much more easily by doing so.
In the meantime democracy itself and the needs of the country are pretty much sidelined. Only a small number of seats ever change hands. Most of us are disenfranchised. Comparisons with other countries show that Britain may be the mother of democracies but she is now no more than a cantankerous Mrs Havisham who sits amongst the cobwebs of her former glory and refuses to change.
There are some upsides. The select committees system works well and has potential to be even better. The House of Lords is surprisingly valuable as an expert think tank and functions as an oasis of reason in a dry land of poor judgement. And despite all the hard hitting analysis Dunt does not end on a downbeat note. In fact he is optimistic that change is possible but we have to agitate for it and we have to demand better.
I would urge everyone to read this book and then start agitating. But from the outside and on issues that matter. But don’t try and become an MP. Because by all accounts that won’t change anything.
Eyecatching 