Bad Government

Caroline Slocock has been very lucky. This is the right book for the right moment. She could not have known that its publication would coincide with the replacement of Sir Keir Starmer, largely because of mistakes she accurately describes in this readable volume. Much of her book covers well-trodden ground where many authors have pinpointed real weaknesses in the administrative mechanisms that UK Ministers rely upon. 

(See for example, Sam Freedman’s Failed State - written in 2024/2025 and before Labour mostly failed to address these issues.)

What makes Slocock’s analysis so much better is the insider’s view of someone who clearly saw the same problems emerge over and over and the institutional

and cultural inertia that defeated most attempts to tackle them.

Every chapter starts with succinct phrases to describe what she regards as ‘bad government’ and ‘good government.’ Super summaries; and she will surely

be pleased at the congruence between her list and the ideas in the Cabinet Statement on ‘Rewiring

the State’. I recommend the No10 Team, north as well as south – to study her detailed suggestions;

they might find them helpful. And very timely.