The Blunders of Our Governments

BLUNDERS: things which went wrong, which were foreseeable, but which the government did anyway.

A very strong executive (government) makes it possible for policies to get rushed into place, without proper checks or thinking. 

No consensus + No consultation = Ineffective policies

Behavioural causes of BLUNDERS:

IgnorancePrejudiceLack of judgement.Lack of appropriate/relevant experienceNo rewards or sanctions  Over confidenceCarelessStubbornCultural Gap: don't understand voters

Structural causes of BLUNDERS:

Poorly designed decision-making processes.Deficit of deliberation – too efficient & decisive; scrutiny disempowered. Operational disconnect. Professional politicians haven't run anything. No long-term responsibility

Parliament – becomes a bit of an irrelevant spectator.

Whips ensure that Parliament is not able to rein in this behaviour.Scrutiny committees are disempowered by party loyalties, and by ministers either pressuring their fellow party members or simply bypassing the scrutiny process – and sometimes parliament itself – altogether.Public accounts committee (actually one of the most useful bits of what Westminster does) only checks on activity after the fact. 

All of that does not add up to a recipe for good government.

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