Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It

by Sam Freedman

NOTHING WORKS IN BRITAIN.

It’s harder than ever to get a GP appointment. Burglaries go unpunished. Wages have been stagnant for years, even as the cost of housing rises inexorably. Why is everything going wrong at the same time?

It's easy to point the finger at dysfunctional or even corrupt politicians. But in reality it’s more complicated. Politicians can make things better or worse, but all work within our state institutions. And ours are irrevocably broken and outmoded.

In Failed State, respected political analyst Sam Freedman offers a devastating analysis of where we’ve gone wrong. Speaking to politicians of all stripes, civil servants, workers on the frontline and key thinkers across the world, this book bursts with insight on the real problems that are so often hidden from the front pages. The result is a witty, landmark book that paves the way for a fairer and more prosperous Britain.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Economics, History, British Literature, Society, Audiobook

359 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2024

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't resist posting the review below from The Guardian Newspaper of August 22, 2024 because it is thought provoking and raises issues that are relevant to more then UK residents.

"Most books about politics concern personalities or ideologies rather than systems. Sam Freedman’s first book sets out to be an exception, and he acknowledges at the outset that this comes with risks: “Issues of governance and constitutional failure are inherently abstract and, to most of the population, impenetrable.”

"It’s more fun, in other words, bitching about wicked milk-snatching Tories than wading into the weeds of the relationship between the Treasury and regional government, or the effect of the “principle of legality” on the uses and abuses of judicial review, or statutory instruments and skeleton bills.

"But, boring as they may be, Freedman says, we need to look at these things. It’s not – or not just – that Boris Johnson is a rogue, Liz Truss a maniac and Rishi Sunak a wet blanket that has got us where we are. The last half-century has seen a series of changes in the apparatus of government that have made it difficult if not impossible for even competent and well-intentioned prime ministers to do their jobs. Central government is at once overmighty and overwhelmed; perverse incentives abound; short-termism is rife; the levers of power aren’t properly connected to the machinery.

"Government becomes overwhelmed and reacts by trying to seize more control, in a toxic cycle
Freedman, a former policy wonk and ministerial adviser, lucidly sets out how we ended up here. Faced with a broken system, the instinct of government is always to do exactly what will make things worse: centralise power further, and further circumvent checks on executive authority. “Government becomes overwhelmed, reacts by trying to seize more control and further reduces scrutiny, makes things worse, and gets more overwhelmed.” It is “a toxic cycle”.

"He supplies weep-makingly absurd instances of the results. Some, such as the money wasted by the outsourcing of state capacity in markets-that-aren’t-markets to Serco, Capita and G4S, will be familiar to most readers in broad outline if not in detail. Others, such as the way local councils spend fortunes competitively “bidding” for pots of central money, will be less well known. One 2022 study found “53 funds, all with different criteria and varying timescales and eligibilities, being offered by 10 government departments and agencies. Five levels of government are eligible to bid for or receive funding, with another 19 types of organisations eligible.”

"The increasingly ferocious ding-dongs between executive and judiciary, Freedman argues, would cease to happen if the latter wasn’t forced to be a backstop against rushed and incoherent legislation, which requires better and more thoughtful law-making, which requires more thorough and less headline-chasing parliamentary scrutiny, which means, in turn, reforming the civil service and the role of backbench MPs. The tail-wagging-the-dog relationship between government and media is a big part of the problem, too.

"Freedman apologises in his acknowledgments for failing to include the contribution of his teenage children – “Rishi Sunak is a knobhead” – because it “didn’t really fit with my systems focus”. Nevertheless, he does liven his analysis with the odd salty remark. Steve Hilton’s “big society” was “exactly the sort of amorphous and ill-thought-through idea you’d expect from someone who’s ended up as a talking head on Fox News”; Chris Grayling is “high up in the list of the least competent people to be given high office in British history”, and “having Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in charge will always make things worse”.

"“People matter,” he concedes, “but systems matter more, and we will get nowhere until we fix our systems.” To his credit, Freedman has detailed suggestions as to how, notable among them giving devolved authorities proper autonomy and, crucially, tax-raising powers; beefing up the status and pay of select committee chairs (who help counter executive overreach) to rival that of ministers (who are creatures of patronage and therefore reinforce it); rebuilding state capacity, and outsourcing only when there’s a genuinely competitive market and outcomes are measurable. Plus, of course, the bread and butter of civil service and Lords reform.

"It is, as he acknowledges, a huge task – but he argues that unless conventional politicians learn to give away power to retain it, there is something much nastier around the corner.

[Vanya Prodanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Политиката става интересна, когато остарееш достатъчно и твърде много ти бъркат в джоба. Определено при мен така се получава. :)

Авторът ми е познат като име, най-малкото защото е цитиран из почти всяка икономическа и политическа книга, която съм чела досега, но по български манталитет - вяра нямам на никого и си имам едно наум. Това настрана, постарал се е достъпно, с чувство за хумор и откровеност да представи какви са проблемите на страната и даже дава идеи какво може да се направи. Хареса ми, че не захаросва нищо, а се старае като дава идеите за подобряване, да си каже, че ще има провали и грешки, но че са част от процеса. Мисля, че всички, не само политиците, но и обикновените граждани, трябва си припомнят, че се учим да ходим чрез проба-грешка, не прохождаме уверено от раз. Уви, мнението ми за британското население след като избраха Борис Джонсън, падна много ниско и не съм оптимист накъде върви тази страна.

Всеки, който живее в UK, особено ние чужденците, книгата би му била полезна, тъй като ти помага да си обясниш всичката безумност, лудост и драма, които виждаш, защо съществуват. И най-вече защо постоянно тези данъци, наеми и цени растат и няма край.

[Andrew Pratley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a state of the nation book. Anyone who lives in UK will understand that though this is still a wonderful country to live in things are not altogether well. As the author points out every 40 years or so a major shake up is required to things on a better path. So it is now. The book identifies the problems pretty clearly & proposes a number of solutions which make eminent sense. I found the book illuminating & credible. None of what is required is beyond us nor is in the least bit threatening. In fact though we all hate change a bit of change is good for us.

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book which does a great job of analysing our structural problems and how they’re holding us back. The argument is focused and well-structured, and I really liked how solutions were offered throughout and felt like a natural part of the analysis rather than just shoved at the end.

I particularly enjoyed the section at the end which used the analogy of music and pop culture to understand how our politics is so focused on the past, and how an endless focus on previous generations prevents us from properly solving our problems and moving forward.

Overall a great book which offers much food for thought on why Britain is broken.

[Finn Mannerings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of detail and knowledge about how the British state actually works outside of the realms of party politics. Incredibly insightful and informative.

[Issy Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought this was great. Not hyperbolic or unfair to anyone in particular, but very clear on the problems, which are very clear to anyone but aren't immediately easy to understand.

[Del Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant Read. Conclusion: no one in parliament knows what the hell they are doing. No surprise there then. Scary bit: how other less palatable people might get a chance in power, if the current ones carry on the way they are carrying on. Must have book.

[Paul Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. Sam F is a genius on Twitter and other places, and rightly has a reputation for very nerdy analysis of British politics spiced with strong opinions and supported by connections to other commentators and academics (both his parents are professors). This is a great big-picture view of the dysfunctional British state and ways he thinks we can avoid a dystopian future. One gap was the marked lack of interest in climate change as a driver of future issues to swallow all of the current ones, but maybe that wasn’t the point of the book. There are lot of these kinds of books around at the moment and I’d be fascinated to see what the new government can do in the next 5-10 years to address it all.

[Sandeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating - 3.5 - Sam Freedman's Failed State takes a strictly system-led approach to why Britain seems to be failing. He delves deep into the inner workings of government organisations and offers practical solutions to fix them.

Well structured and thought, the solution offered is decentralisation of power by illustrating how overloaded the Prime Minister and their office is with work and their refusal to part with it despite that. He also talks about Britain's over reliance on private firms to run the state, regardless of how often they fail. Lastly how the media, PR and the Internet have made it all about optics rather than policy turning politics into a frantic mess.

The glaring loophole here is that he doesn't talk about people who make these systems and how the lack of diversity of thought in the upper echelons of power have manifested in the "more of the same" attitude that has plagued successive governments. He does touch upon the lack of dissent in the civil services against the government and governance but the make-up of the civil services is not discussed.

Overall a good book to understand how the institutions of British polity (do not) work.

[Maria White · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting canter through the many structural failings of our system of government by Sam Freedman, ex-spad, now writer of the consistently excellent substack "Comment is Freed". Freedman's central point is that power is absurdly centralised with the government completely overwhelmed, hoarding executive power, poorly scrutinised, trapped in short-termist thinking and in hock to the Treasury scorecard and the media/comms grid. It's very persuasive and not a little depressing. Much of the governance material is a bit over-familiar to me from the day job but the chapters on the media and, especially, the disastrous state of government outsourcing/running of contracts with Capita, Serco etc are strong stuff. Very readable and worth reading.

[George Pickthorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the first half of this I felt that freedman was just going through constitutional-criticism motions that we hear about quite a lot while being more left wing coded than he might let on initially.

But, when he’s talking about the media, nostalgic politics and Adrenalin-whatsapp run government he totally hits the mark.

I think/hope that there are people doing more good work than he admits but he isn’t wrong about a single thing really.

I’m not sure what if anything is being done better now so I guess bring on the charlatans…

[Yusuf Karmali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book outlining the systems of government that have lead to the paralysis of the British state. Outlines some key ways to improve governance. It would be good if in the last chapter a little more insight or details of the remedies were given. For example we talk about fiscal devolution but how would this work in practice? It would be interesting if Mr Freedman could translate this excellent analysis into a compelling manifesto for government change.

[Dan Collinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loveeeee Sam Freedman's blog I think his diagnosis is sublime. About as good as these sort of centrist above left / right people can kind of get. I appreciate shifting the blame to institutions and media dominance and his proposals of reform are sorely needed. There's a line towards the end about Israel's prime minister seizing executive power as a foreshadowing for a potential future for the UK , which I found scarily ominous. Anyway time to vote for my council election yayyyyy labour

[Max Mears · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sam Freedman’s wealth of experience and knowledge of working within government and with others in government, truly emphasises what is really wrong with Britain. It’s the way the government governs. Seen across literature it’s clear that the government holds too much powers and doesn’t know how or what to do with it. This book goes over all components of what is wrong with Britains governing structures and how they can get better. A must read for a better Britain.

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

cleverest guy in politics strikes again

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the title of the book, I still don’t quite understand how we fix it.

[Harry Balden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know loads about scheduling motions and statutory instruments now, and you know what I’m glad I do

[Robert Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful analysis of a system set up to fail and the reasons why , as time and technology have rendered an anachronistic system impotent to serious failings throughout state services. Lots of interviews and example of failure and some basic suggestions that could have us looking like a modern 21C nation.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This rings true but also backs up the case with lots of great examples. It further makes some actual suggestions for the solutions needed although given it was only 300 pages it could have had an extra 50 pages to go into the solutions in more detail.

[Wilf Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't take my star-rating too seriously; the three stars I've given are a better reflection of my enjoyment of this book, rather than a reflection of the quality of its ideas.

This a serious book, aimed at people who are deeply interested in its subject, particularly those who may hope to improve the quality of governance themselves. If that's you, then I think you'll get a lot out of this book.

But I suppose I'm someone who doesn't quite fit into the intended audience. I was hoping to be entertained and to draw some general enlightenment on the topics considered, as well as learning more about the British political system. But I'm not really sure I managed all of that.

There's a lot of good, clear-headed analysis here, and there were only a few points that I found unconvincing or questionable. However, I found the writing a bit laboured at times, almost like I was reading an essay that someone had written under the time pressure of a university exam.

[Michael G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, and to be commended for actually providing a reasonable level of detail on the problems that exist at the top of the British state. The author is perhaps wise enough to hint at things that work (or have worked) while not laying out a precise programme for improvement. I found the book irritatingly left-leaning, even though its clear Freedman is trying to be reasonably balanced. Surely the problem is that, besides some administrative complexity at the top that can be simplified, the British state is simply trying to do too much?

[Zebedy Pebedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freedman paints a picture of a Britain in decline, institutions systematically failing, locked into ideologies and increasingly vicious cycles of rot. He starts with the increasing centralisation of government and power to Westminster, and how that has universally downgraded provision of care throughout the UK. The continuation of Prime Ministerial government since Thatcher has led to overload of work for the centralised government, with local authorities unable to carry out more minor tasks. The dominance of the Treasury within government has led to unbalanced decision making, with a focus on cost-cutting failing to realise the wider picture and meaning there cannot be a significant long-term plan for the future of the UK.

The weaknesses of centralisation is the major theme within this book, with the psychology of ministers liking the idea of holding more power shown, in reality, as leading to haphazard decision making and vastly increased bureaucracy. The wholesale destruction of local authorities and their economic levers is, in theory, supposed to ensure universal standards of provision, but instead ensures everybody gets nothing.

Freedman goes on to lambast the complete reliance on the private sector by government, the ideological roots of which have been completely undone by the fact that there is a seeming monopoly on government contracts by 4 big companies, who are all equally incompetent and only out to get big cheques from the government, which ministers are happy to give them to avoid scrutinisation. Here, Freedman suggests the entire current system is fundamentally broken, with a more pragmatic system determining when outsourcing is beneficial, (competition and accountability required), being necessary to save vital public services.

The relationship between Parliament and the Executive is analysed in detail, with Freedman determining that there has been a rise in executive power, leading to reductions in accountability and transparency, with the democratic role of Parliament minimised. Rise in government activity has led to increasing want to avoid scrutiny as to not slow down government business, a disastrous result for checks and balances within a democratic system. Usage of whips, diminishing ability of the Lords to scrutinise bills and simply bypassing Commons altogether has become more frequent as government seek to ensure dominance of executive control. To improve this, Freedman suggests that we reform the nature of Parliament; modernising Lords by introducing retirement age, removing hereditary peers and a bolstered appointment committee to prevent corruption (Johnson's resignation honours list), and making the Commons more of a legislating platform to diminish the amount of 'Career MPs', allowing more scrutiny.

Through the absence of Parliamentary scrutiny, Freedman then explains how the judiciary have been forced to take a greater role in Politics in order to protect the rule of law. Executive dominance has faced a judicial backlash, which has then seen a 'democratic push' to reduce the power of judges, thereby increasing the sole executive dominance. Ministers have become obsessed with their patronage powers and avoiding scrutiny, with the result of a vast array of public services being led by stooges with little to no experience in the sector they are leading. They have also been frustrated by the traditional nature of the Civil Service, although attempted reform has led to a 'brain-drain', as short-term fixers are prioritised by short-term thinking ministers over talented long-term reformers.

Finally, Freedman attacks the current psychology of government, with the over-reliance on media, announcement and spin. The 'comms' takeover and The Grid has led to little action and must-talk as governments are in self-perpetuating cycles to push out more initiatives and policy by an ever-hungry media cycle. With the creation of the Internet and Social Media, this trend has only been heightened in order to keep interest in a 24hr news cycle. Political 'retromania', with constant references back to past successes, has led to a failure of fresh, innovative policy and a breakdown in public trust in politics. The current system is broken at its route, seen by the rise of Reform UK and extremism, showing public collapse in confidence. Failed State highlights the main areas where services and government are failing, and the potential reforms that could change the system.

[Jakub Dovcik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Freedman combines two worlds that should be connected yet often seem very divergent - the worlds of policy and politics. He is very at home in both, but the point of this book is that the emphasis on politics and especially communications has created huge problems for developing and implementing good policy in the UK context - in conclusion, arguing that the only two things that now actually matter in Westminster are the Treasury scorecard (to set the budget and spending) and the Number 10 media grid (the very detailed schedule of government announcements).

For someone who writes one of the most popular substacks in UK politics, not much will be actually new in this book that has not been argued for either in Sam’s substack, in Ian Dunt’s ‘How Westminster Works and Why It Doesn’t’ or on the pages of London Review of Books. What is relatively new is the last chapter in the third section about ‘Retromania’ - a very good reflection on how British politics is stuck in the past, as it is heavily dominated by people who studied politics at university and are mixing the idea of politics (quotes, visuals, symbols) with its practice - this creates a rift between the reality of life lived by people in and outside the Westminster bubble. This is probably similar to other government centres around the world but probably exacerbated by how insular are the institutions, from which the members of the governing class in Britain are selected. Despite having read a lot about the dysfunction of the UK civil service, I was, for instance, still struck by how limited is the capacity for generation and thorough analysis of new policy ideas for ministers, which is now done by only a handful of SpAd-like appointed Senior Policy Advisors (a role that Sam Freedman did for Michael Gove at DofE).

The book is structured around three arguments - that the UK government is Overloaded, that it focuses on too much, is too centralised, but contracts so much out (there is a good quote that ‘UK government is now basically a procurement agency that is bad at procurement’, reflecting on how the service delivery is basically now done only by external partners and not the government itself, which focuses on ‘strategy and policy’, in services which do not have actual markets). Then, it is Overpowered, which is a classic argument about the limits of parliamentary oversight and scrutiny, even though some is done by judicial review.

Lastly, Overdrive is an argument that the focus on communications as the driver of government creates pressure on rapid and frequent policy announcements, turning the Grid, a coordination mechanism for government announcements pioneered by Alastair Campbell, into the ‘Random announcements generator’, which is often gamed or even ridiculed by the individual ministers, by announcing the same thing many times over, announcing measures that either do not mean anything (Freedman gives an example of announcements of giving disciplinary powers to school principals that they already had) or are actually harmful (like repeated announcements of tougher sentencing laws in times when people have to be released from prisons early due to their overcrowding). This argument against performative policymaking is not mentioned often enough and is present in other political systems.

A very well-written book, there is a lot to be learned even for political systems and contexts outside of Britain - especially with regard to the communication-centred model of modern political activity.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit to being a fan of the author's journalism, so when I cam to this book, I had a rough idea of what to expect. In many ways, it exceeded my expectations. It is a fairly clear account of why, in the opinion of the author, Britain has stopped working. If we had to distil the cause down to a single point of failure, I would say that it is 'Treasury Brain' - an unwillingness to spend enough to do anything properly.

The author introduces us to a 'Crisis Cycle'. This is a process where the state takes on more and more responsibilities that eventually exceeds its ability to deliver. We then have a major crisis, a new way of doing things, and the process starts again. The author maintains that we are currently in the final crisis point of the current iteration of government. It is an argument that is hard to counter. Two questions arise. How did we get here? And what can we do about it? Those are the themes of the book.

The cause of the current situation is ascribed to three trends by the author. First, there is the centralisation of power in Westminster. More and more responsibilities are taken on by Whitehall that are far beyond their capacity to mange these issues. The author provides many examples, but the one that stays with me is the 'Chewing Gum Task Force', dedicated to the removal of chewing gum on the pavements of the UK. The second trend is the growing dominance of the executive. The government has grown ever more powerful in relation to Parliament, which it uses to simply authorise policy. This has given rise to a while raft of ill thought out and badly drafted legislation that then goes to the courts for interpretation. The third trend is the growth of the superfast media cycle and the replacement of policy for soundbites. This makes for really poor governance.

If these are the problems, then what are the solutions? The author offers a number of solutions. To counter centralisation, he suggests that power becomes devolved further within the system. Local mayors could have greater powers, local authorities could be given more responsibility over their finances, Britain could move towards a more federal system. To counter the executive, more authority could be given to select committees in Parliament, it could involve greater scrutiny and review, and the government could be compelled to give more thought to proposed legislation. To counter the news cycle, politicians could give greater focus to policy rather than just announcements. They could be more deliberative and less keen to pander to the press.

All of these are possible, but many of them seem unlikely because they mean abandoning the Treasury Brain. However, the crisis cycle does point to the possibility of a degree of hope in the future. However, the collapse of the current system is likely to be a painful exercise leading to that future. In the short term, poor governance is set to continue.

[Andrew Macfarlane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written from the eye of a policy officer and that is never good. It isn't a bad book. There are some good points to be made such as the disproportionate amount of communications staff to real workers in the cabinet office. Another good point is in the chapter about the role and lives of MPs and how they face the pressures from two sides, constituents who need things done and government whips who want their own personal progression and esteem to be sated. 60000 people Vs 1 and guess who gets their way. Policy departments are the largest absolute waste of tax in the United Kingdom. In the 2 spells I have had for them, in DWP and in the Scottish government they were the worst years in 40 years as a civil servant by far. Several hundred staff not trying to help someone, not trying to save a life, deliver support or actually do anything. No. Policy staff have a single goal of keeping the minister's foot out of their mouth. Hordes of taxpayers money spent on wastes of space who make a career out of pontificating to others how they should be doing things, safe in the knowledge and enthusiastic about the fact that they will never have to see a member of the public on whom they shove their ideas. There is a promising part about outsourced contracts. Freedman recognises that a few companies only can take up government contracts. If he bothered to ask people on the ground he would find out that the getting of the contract is the goal, the provision of the contract an irrelevance. He touches upon this but never mentions the real stranglehold. G4S, Serco,Capita et al know that the UK government is petrified of having to take legal action to enforce contracts and so they display a laziness and lack of management towards contract fulfillment knowing they will not be questioned. If anyone starts asking awkward questions about the company and the contracts they can be shut up with the offer of a job (I have personal experience of this from BET facilities management and GE Capta - both politely but firmly rejected and with the knowledge imparted to them that their corruption was not acceptable). Freedman claims that some, not all, but some outsourced work saves money but then never mentions the other side of it,; that all the saved money and more goes into setting up structures to monitor and manage the contract so they always , absolutely ALWAYS end up costing the taxpayer more.
Freedman also knows nothing about social security. He peddles the myth that DWP finds people fit for work -it has never declared people fit or not fit. It makes a decision based on evidence of longer term CAPABILTY TO BE HELPED BACK TOWARDS WORK, something entirely so different. If he worked on the ground or asked people working on the frontline rather in policy Freedman might know this. It doesn't by itself make the book wrong....just makes his premises and his argument irrelevant

[Horhe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book which presents an insider's view on what bad governance looks like in Britain and how it became worse over the years. I am not entirely convinced by the author's insistence that true administrative decentralization is what matters, but he does paint a vivid picture of a central prime-ministerial authority that increasingly lacks policy capacity and is consumed by media management, while arrogating for itself powers and duties that are much greater than before. For the author, social media's interaction with politics and the new journalism industry have been unmitigated disasters, mixed in with inadequate institutional support for the new roles of government. His description of how people have to squish themselves into No 10 were amusing but also suggestive of the worst tendencies of British administration - hidebound traditionalism mixed with opportunistic power grabs.

What I did not like about the book is that, to read it, you would not know that the United Kingdom has been through an enormous and enormously divisive population growth and replacement in certain areas, including in the capital. For him, Britain is the same as it has ever been, just with less functional institutions, but some good practices, inspired leadership and technocratic tinkering will set it back on track. When he does mention it, immigration becomes just another issue like flood management, not something that, through ethnic and religious machine politics, is rewriting the political manual for the UK and is stressing established institutions and politics in a way that certainly is reflected in the challenges it faces. At the same time, for all of his attempts at evenhanded criticism, one can tell that the Tories get the most bile.

In short, it is a good book, but I doubt it will be in my top 10.

[Chris Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started my career in 1976 and gave up paid employment in 2023. Throughout that period I have been a passive spectator of the inexorable decline of our country. Like watching a car crash in slow motion over 40 years and being powerless to stop it. It is especially galling as I worked around 30 years in the NHS. Policies that made sense to me in the 80’s under Thatcher and in the 90’s-2000’s under Blair, and I think were well intentioned at the time, have turned out to be contributors to many of our problems in recent years.

It is really helpful, therefore, to read an analysis of the reasons for this decline that is objective and looks at systemic failures rather than slinging mud at the so called perpetrators. If we had better governance and better policy making, the madder excesses of some of our politicians may have been held in check, and we may have had governments that actually delivered helpful solutions rather than snake oil salesman that can tell a good story.

The book tries to be optimistic about the future. There are suggestions about how to fix things. It needs a government that is brave enough to take long term decisions and to focus on the rather dull, but essential mechanisms of governance.

The books was written before the current Labour Government was elected, and Keir Starmer has been clear that rebuilding Britain is at least a ten year project. My fear is that many of the drivers that push towards more centralisation of government, as explained in the book, will not give Starmer the time and space needed to make the state governable effectively again. This is assuming that Starmer has a similar agenda to the author, and that is by no means a given.

If people want to understand why our state has failed I commend this book.

[Gerard W · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Torsten Bell’s recent book explained the roots of inequality and the economic woes of the UK, Sam Freedman’s enlightening new book explains the structural failures with our entire system of governance that have enabled the UK’s stagnation.

This is truly a book that should be read and reflected upon by civil servants, politicians, journalists and activists alike. I myself am an ex-civil servant and ardent follower of UK politics, and have encountered many of these failures and tricks of policy and accounting that Freedman describes.

Freedman takes on a systemic journey of how we got to the mess we have today. From successive Prime Ministers centralizing power in a handful of SpAds in No10, and the decimation of local-government, removing expert and local perspectives on how policies and money should be implemented and distributed in the most effective way. To the short term news-cycle-PR focus of our elected politicians leading to a total lack of consideration for long term infrastructure or in depth planning of what goes behind a headline grabbing announcement. There has been a total failure of how good governance should work.

Attempts to avoid scrutiny now abound too, with half-baked laws being pushed through using archaic statutory instruments with no votes, or being accelerated through the commons with a three line whip and no extended debate. Our non-government legislators often have little to no power at times to actually hold policy to account, and successive governments have also sought to limit legal reviews of policy too.

I could keep going on in more depth about so much more, every chapter is filled with well researched insights (Freedman is and ex-Department for Education SpAd). But if you read this far into my review you should probably just read the book.

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Failed State is a good book to read if you enjoyed Why We Get the Wrong Politicians as there is a lot of common ground. This one looks at the mechanism by which the government is performed though more than the people elected to serve it.

The result is pretty depressing, and there are far more problems than solutions (despite the sub-title). I won't list them, but anyone who reads this book will soon dispense of thoughts like: if only Party X were elected, everything would be good again.

One area which resonated with me is how technology has destroyed politics. Our media was never great but TV and newspapers at least had at least nominal rules and standards - they still do for those consuming news that way. But over recent decades 24-hour news, social media and permanent opinion polls have all taken their toll. Anyone who wants to become a politician must be mad: the pay is rubbish, the hours awful, and the stress is off the scale.

Our state was put together in a different era, it hasn't caught up, and never will. It needs not tweaks but a total reset if it is to function properly again.

[David Goll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Failed State is the sharpest account of Britain’s recent political dysfunction I’ve read. It certainly helps that Sam Freedman was a SpAd for three years under Gove at DfE, so has been much closer to the nuts and bolts of Whitehall than most. And that, while he was there, he worked alongside Dominic Cummings - the individual most responsible for the hyper-acceleration of executive dominance.

The diagnosis is hard to argue with - that power has been increasingly centralised in No 10 and the Treasury, institutions that are unable or unwilling to make sensible decisions. I'm less convinced by the cure. Freedman advocates for pushing more power out to local government but, despite its relevance, there is virtually nothing on devolution - which has a pretty mixed record for improving public services - and no international comparisons. Even historically - was the state that much more effective when local government was more powerful, back in the pre-Thatcher years? How would we know if it was? Political histories of the 60s and 70s definitely don't leave me with that impression.

Nonetheless, interesting and insightful throughout - and maybe too much to expect Freedman to solve of our problems in a few hundred pages.