Royal commissions transformed Britain in the 1960s – we desperately need them now | Simon Jenkins

These independent inquiries would rise above the party-political deadlock over reform for the NHS and housing

Britain’s once-famed welfare state seems unable to deliver. Public services are riven with conflict and starved of funds. Nothing works. Yet there the argument ends. The government defends the status quo, the opposition claims it is all about money. The Treasury rules. Reform ossifies. Progress is zero.

Scratch the surface of this week’s strikes and it is clear that each of the services ha...