How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't

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Its actions are normally cautious because the House of Commons could overhaul it, and there are limits to its powers: it can’t kill a bill, just delay it for one session.

No part of Westminster escapes his systematic criticism of the role it plays in a dysfunctional system. This combined with a slow “drip-feed” of crossbench experts has ensured that no party has since held overall control, despite Boris Johnson’s best efforts. The Commons, as Clegg reflects and Dunt details, falls some way short of its famous moniker as the mother of all parliaments. This is presumably because those interviewees are still at work in a system about which it is too risky to speak thoughtfully and honestly.Turnover has increased, faster than in the many countries where reshuffles require coalition agreement. Hence, they rejected the advice of the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which they normally respect, for big investment in education to compensate for deprivation due to COVID-19. Within departments, a permanent public bill committee should establish a culture of cooperative work to improve legislation.

Bills used to be scrutinized, and when necessary re-drafted, by the Attorney-General, but since Suella Braverman held the role, briefly, in 2020–2022 it has become “a mouthpiece for government policy,” no longer providing objective advice.Dunt describes how selection is made “behind closed doors” by party members, who have become steadily less representative of the wider population as party membership has shrunk from a peak in the 1950s, especially since the 1990s. No 10’s control of special advisors must end and they should be appointed on the basis of expertise alone. Also, spads have grown in numbers but have ceased to be experts from outside politics but younger people chosen on grounds of party loyalty to assist Ministers with their daily tasks rather than to inform and criticize them.