Published: 2 Feb 2025
How Westminster Works …And Why It Doesn’t
- Release date: 2018
- Genre: Non-fiction, Politics
- Themes/Moods: Medium-paced, Informative, Reflective, Challenging
- Rating: 5/5
A massively eye-opening book outlining the inner workings of British Government, and how it has evolved (sometimes deliberately, sometimes unintentionally) into an ineffectual and incomprehensible beast perpetuated only by the UK’s slavish attachment to tradition and unwritten convention. Ian Dunt is ruthless and scathing in his criticism in all quarters, Politicians, Civil Servants, Journalists and every system in-between - and has numerous supporting quotes and evidence from insiders echoing their own disdain in their area of government.
Dunt does give glowing praise for the few aspects that he perceives to actually work as intended (House of Lords, and Select Committees) and frequently uses those as a frame of reference for future solutions to improve the myriad of systems and processes that simply do not.
It makes it clear that voting alone as a regular citizen of the UK will not solve the myriad of problems the UK faces governing its own country and much reform needs to happen (and needs significant incentives/willpower to happen), which does instill a great sense of anger and despondency in the whole system. However, given the range of totally simple, basic, low-hanging fruit solutions outlined in the final chapter I’d say there’s a theme of hope in conclusion - the UK is significantly handicapping itself and even the most rudimentary and obvious of changes to the political system could greatly improve both Westminster and the UK as a whole.
