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The Blunders of Our Governments

Anthony King,

Ivor Crewe

3.81 · Rating details · 502 ratings · 62 reviews

From the poll tax to ID cards, a groundbreaking look at three decades of outrageous political mishaps.

A lively and intrepid analysis of the mistakes made by both the Labour and Tory governments over the past three decades. Written by two of Britain's most distinguished political scientists, this is the must-read politics book of 2013

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Hardcover, 488 pages

Published September 19th 2013 by Oneworld Publications

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Dec 03, 2013 Paul Bryant rated it liked it

Shelves: politics

There were some Chinese tourists on the radio the other day, they’d come to London and they were expressing their surprise at what they saw – blue sky! They were fully expecting London to be wreathed in Dickensian fog. Yes, this antique image is still alive and well. But people, the London pea-souper was eradicated in 1956!! That was when parliament passed the Clean Air Act which created urban zones where only smokeless fuel could be burnt. This was a great success – many people were thus saved ...more

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Dec 03, 2013 Geevee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, british-history

If you want to be reminded of some of the government blunders from the last 40 years this is a good book for you.

The authors won't just remind you though they will provide measured and well researched insight into not only bills, initiatives and taxes that went bad but also offer views on patterns and behaviours of decision making (or not), and why the British government system makes howlers that not only cost taxpayers fortunes but in some case people's lives.

Flowing, well paced and informativ ...more

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Sep 18, 2013 Paul rated it it was amazing

Shelves: politics, history

Blundering Around Whitehall

The Blunders our Governments make by the respected political professors and commentators Ivor Crewe and Anthony King is a non-partisan look at the mistakes that all governments make in the course of history. Sometimes in the face of fierce opposition they still make the mistakes most politicians like to quietly disown while the opposition party likes to remind them of.

It is not all bad as Crewe and King explain what they view as a Blunder and not all of them come from Blundering Around Whitehall

The Blunders our Governments make by the respected political professors and commentators Ivor Crewe and Anthony King is a non-partisan look at the mistakes that all governments make in the course of history. Sometimes in the face of fierce opposition they still make the mistakes most politicians like to quietly disown while the opposition party likes to remind them of.

It is not all bad as Crewe and King explain what they view as a Blunder and not all of them come from knee-jerk reactions to the press. The book starts with some of the successes of Government, and sometimes things that governments ought to be proud to boast of but forgotten about. A case in point being Margaret Thatcher, often accused of having no industrial policy other than close things down, through the strength of a meeting with a Japanese Company in the 1980s brought inward investment to the North East of England from the Nissan Car Company who to this day still invest heavily in car manufacturing in the region. Thatcher in her own autobiography should be proud of this achievement but it only gets a mention in passing of no more than a sentence. King and Crewe show that all governments since 1945 have done some good and some bad as unintended consequences of policy proposals, such as the Town & Country Act a success but not recognised or the disaster that was Energy Minister Manny Shinwell who was warned there would be fuel shortages and did absolutely nothing to prepare for it. But I could point to many more disasters Shinwell created. Or that the Labour Party should be proud of its manifesto promise of a minimum wage and its implementation with the then Tory leader in 2005 admitting they were wrong to oppose it.

There is also a mention of Sir Keith Joseph the Conservative Party’s guiding light on the free market and policies when he asked a Conservative voter who lived in the USA what he missed about the UK, he was taken aback that he said the BBC and NHS the two things that were very much government led via the Treasury. If asked that question now I am sure he would say something different about the BBC, especially with their attitude to spending our money. Not like the BBC would give overpaid managers massive payoffs at our expense or employ a former MP with no experience of technology implementation in charge if technology at the BBC, oh wait hang on!

All the old favourites are here such as the tax that has always led to riots and it did in 1990 to with riots in Trafalgar Square yes The Poll Tax is there! Guiding you through that the likes of Chancellor Nigel Lawson saw it as nothing more than a fool’s errand that would cost more politically and financially while Michael Heseltine had dismissed the proposals in the early 80s as unworkable. Even the architects of the scheme Kenneth Baker and William Waldergrave had misgiving by the time of implementation as things had changed during the course and were being led blindly by Margaret Thatcher and Nicholas Ridley. They also ask where on earth were Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition Party was at this time, on one of its naval-gazing exercises of the late 1980s as it happens, yes Hatton and Militant Tendency were still active causing the leadership to take their eye off the ball at that time.

This book guides us through some wonderful blunders, some we are clearly aware of now but were ignorant at the time. Or those blunders we could also see happening but the Honourable Members of Her Majesty’s Government know better! Reminds me of the current and previous Government and their lust for HS2, which will be expensive with out of date trains and technology before a line is laid. We can see this as what it is a massive vanity project that we the public taxpayers do not want but some moronic politician knows better than us and hey it is only money, our tax money!

Through this book we are reminded of some blunders that happened even while opposition MPs spoke up and warned them of unintended consequences, please step up Michael Meacher, Margaret Beckett and Frank Haynes who all shouted that pension mis-selling would happen as an unintended consequence to changes in Pension Legislation. I will not point out who was right but I believe the mis-selling is costing us a few billion, easy money its only tax cash.

They also point to the failings of the Labour Years and their expensive blunders, Individual Learning Accounts anyone? Do not worry there is all ways the Asset Recovery Agency where assets remained unrecovered, or a favourite of the Treasury’s the more expensive tax credits and debits. My favourite is the implementation of IT across Whitehall, and the technophobe Tony Blair who implementated one of the biggest rollouts of IT which still gives the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office enough work to last another life time.

There is also honourable mentions for the famed massively expensive rip off of tax money the Public Private Partnerships and the one that does get highlighted is one forgotten by most of the UK shall we mention “Metronet” leave it at that and invite you to read more about it in the chapter, Down the tubes.

This wonderful book covers all the reasons as to why blunders happen, whether it is due to the constant change of Ministers, or the lack of accountability to Parliament. How sometimes Ministers of all political shades act more like activists than leaders of a government department. Let’s not forget how the press can assist in the blunders of our political leaders by generating panic, picking symbols of this panic and spinning it out of control.

The Blunders of our Government is the best summary from a non-partisan view of the mistakes all governments have made usually with the best of intentions. Sometimes it also shows how out of touch some of our elected representatives really are. As it says on the dust jacket this is a must read for all those who are Ministers of the Crown and those who wish to be, including the opposition. I have read this with a mixture of laughing, crying and just simply shaking my head. This is a book not just for politicians and the students of politics but for those of us who are historians who will one day have to write and define governments and their reasons for success and failure. This is the first time things have been defined and it is a must read for all those in Parliament now!
...more

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Mar 18, 2017 Jonny rated it really liked it

Of enduring relevance and accuracy.

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Aug 04, 2014 James Elder rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: politics-economics-and-society

Interesting, but gossipy and somewhat shallow in its analysis.

The authors made some very odd determinations about what counts as a 'blunder' (incidentally I found the use of that word throughout immensely irritating) and what as successful policy.

Examples:

Barbara Castle's 'In Place of Strife' approach to industrial relations is termed a blunder. It was a failure certainly, but that was down to deep divides in the Labour Party not because the proposed approach was a blunder.

The 1980s sell-off of ...more

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May 30, 2015 Neil Denham rated it really liked it

Super book, the first two parts in particular raised my knowledge of modern politics by about 500%. Written with wit and insight.

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Apr 28, 2018 Mette rated it really liked it

A lot of these blunders demonstrate the pay off between simple and complex systems. One might be easy to administer, but open to fraud or ineffective in practice. In contrast, others were highly complex which can cause chaos, confusion and delays in practice.
The poll tax (PM not listening to advice)
One of the primary reasons for its failure was the speed that it went from PM buying the idea to it happening. Experts weren’t consulted and almost all key decisions were made in the run up to the Tor ...more

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Nov 02, 2019 Martin Samuels rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone interested in why governments so often make such a mess of things

This is an astonishing and shocking book. It is essential reading for any senior leader in the public service, whether politician or official, and would almost certainly be of value to leaders in other sectors too, as many of the causes of the blunders presented here are as prevalent beyond the walls of government.

Professors King and Crewe, both highly regarded and experienced academics formerly of the University of Essex, set out to understand and explain why governments so often get things so This is an astonishing and shocking book. It is essential reading for any senior leader in the public service, whether politician or official, and would almost certainly be of value to leaders in other sectors too, as many of the causes of the blunders presented here are as prevalent beyond the walls of government.

Professors King and Crewe, both highly regarded and experienced academics formerly of the University of Essex, set out to understand and explain why governments so often get things so horribly wrong - wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers money and (all to often) causing misery to large numbers of members of the public, and failing to achieve their stated goals. The book is divided into four parts: the first briefly sets the scene, the second provides thirteen case studies (including such well-known calamities as the Poll Tax and the Child Support Agency, as well as less known examples, such as the Assets Recovery Agency), the third provides five human reasons why these blunders happen (such as cultural disconnect and operational disconnect), while the fourth sets out seven systemic reasons (such as the ineffectiveness of Parliament as a check on Ministers and the frequency with which Ministers are moved). An eplilogue considers whether the Coalition Government from 2010 had managed to improve on the tendency to blunder of its predecessors (the authors conclude it had not).

The authors make a very convincing case, and it certainly fits with my own experience as a policy civil servant in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I worked on one major policy change (not one of the case studies used here), where we were working out the details of the policy, designing the IT system and writing the staff guidance materials all at the same time, in order to speed the process. We all recognised that this sometimes meant that the IT system would have been designed to work one way, even if Ministers subsequently decided the policy should work in a different way. And the only senior civil servant who had the courage to tell Ministers firmly that the go live date would have to be delayed was immediately transferred to other duties (though the postponement was agreed).

The book is very well written, with short, clear, even humorous chapters, and the authors are dterminedly non-political - every Government has blundered, and often for the same reasons. That said, it must be noted that Gordon Brown comes in for particular criticism, as being determined to do things his way, calling on only a small inner circle to design his policies, firmly rejecting any advice or, indeed, anything less than wholehearted support for his prposals, no matter how cleaerly flawed.

A truly outstanding book, but current political developments demonstrate that Whitehall had learned nothing since it was first published. ...more

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Jul 26, 2017 SP rated it liked it

Shelves: read-non-fiction

The first half of the book provides very interesting details and stories about some of the biggest government blunders of the last ~50 years. It gets pretty gory in terms of the jaw dropping incompetence on display, but it makes a number of good points about the weaknesses of government and (in particular) ministers.

The second half of the book I found a bit laboured though - it felt like a bit of a lecture on points that I felt were already made in the first half. I was also disappointed that th ...more

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Nov 05, 2018 Simon Preston rated it really liked it

An erudite but readable compendium of government cock-ups. More importantly the authors move beyond excoriating hapless ministers and look at systemic failures and how they can be avoided. It's even-handed and looks at the efficacy of government policies rather than whether they're right or wrong from an ideological point of view. This makes it a thought provoking read with a great many constructive things to say.

If you're interested, the reasons why governments blunder (ie enact policies that f ...more

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Mar 29, 2019 Daniel Carr rated it liked it

A clear and well-written account of major policy failures in Britain from the Thatcher government on. I suspect you could only find the content interesting if you worked in policy, as most of what you learn from this book is really only applicable if you are (or might one day be) a civil servant, political advisor, or MP.

The book is structured into four parts, with most of the substance of interest in the second (accounts of various blunders). The following parts, which attempt to dissect how t ...more

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Aug 29, 2017 Omar rated it really liked it

I enjoyed this book, it was clear and well sourced account of major blunders the UK government has made in the past 30 years. The first half which deals with each blunder in turn is equal parts hilarious and sad. You begin noticing the structural causes that are a recurring theme, the civil service also comes in for some deserved heat as well as bumbling ministers.

The one issue I have with this book is that it looks at the issues in a sort of fish bowl. How do other countries deal with similar ...more

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Jan 08, 2018 J A rated it liked it · review of another edition

The first Part covers, in painful detail, many of the most egregious blunders of the last several governments in the UK. Crewe and King maintain the right mix of scorn and understanding throughout, and the examples are well contextualized (even for those, like myself, born before many of them occurred).

The second and third Parts, on the Human and Systematic causes of the blunders, are less successful. The structure of the book finds the authors churning over the same blunders as an example of ma ...more

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May 09, 2017 Erin Britton rated it really liked it

In The Blunders of our Governments Anthony King and Ivor Crewe trawl through the litany of woeful decisions and economic oddities that have been perpetrated by a succession of British Governments. Whether it be the mis-selling of pensions, the woeful NHS IT overhaul, the scrapping of ID cards or any of the other numerous examples cited, it seems that government incompetence knows no bounds. The Blunders of our Governments is as depressing as it is funny and is a real eye-opener to just how easil ...more

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Oct 19, 2018 Roger Boyle rated it really liked it

Mike Maidens lent me this.

If you like watching and having opinions about Government in the UK, this is jolly good. If not, you'd find it tiresome and overlong. The authors are unpartisan in displaying a series of huge avoidable cockups, and then go on the analyse how and why they occurred. Having lived through some of these nightmares I found it entertaining and thoroughly depressing. There is no serious prospect of this stopping, & the UK seems particularly prone to this sort of thing.

A few of ...more

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Feb 05, 2020 Ophelia rated it liked it

This is thoroughly well-researched and detailed, providing an interesting insight into some of the major blunders of government in modern British history. Whilst it is certainly comprehensive, it did drag a bit towards the end. Part 1 explores a variety of blunders (a chapter for each) while part 2 designates a chapter to each reason for which blunders occur. However, usually the point around the reason is made relatively quickly and there isn't a need to refer back so often and so in depth to e ...more

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Apr 09, 2019 Andrew Galley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: comedy, uk-law-and-politics, history, british-history

Bit of a dry read for the most part but not so dry that I thought it was a textbook.

This isn't a full review but I wanted to implore anyone who is considering this book, regardless whether they read the whole thing, to read the chapter about accountability. In our current political discourse this is one of the best chapters and summaries I have read in a long time.

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Jan 06, 2020 Richard Gillin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Scarily accurate portrayal of how even the best-intentioned projects can go wrong and bring misery. A cautionary tale for anyone looking to criticise governments of whichever political hue - disagreement over doctrine (it’s bad because it’s too Tory/socialist/whatever...) often shouts loudest and masks failure to plan...

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Aug 15, 2017 Kieran rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Having read this, I'm very glad the UK government isn't about to embark on some massively complex project, for which it is completely unprepared, and could do serious harm to the country if mishandled.

Oh.

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Apr 22, 2020 Jack rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 21, 2017 Matt Finucane rated it really liked it

Gets a bit dreary towards the end but well worth a read if you're interested in government (as opposed to politics).

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May 06, 2018 Chris rated it really liked it

Bit of a slog to get through as the bureaucratic problems emerging from policy implementation is objectively boring, but very important stuff and stunningly well researched.

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Feb 27, 2017 Callum Soukup-Croy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

I'd been looking forward to reading this book for a long time what with having an interest in politics, history and economics and I can't feel anything other than disappointed. This is definitely a book of two halves and the first half is actually quite good. King and Crewe retell, in just the right amount of detail, some of the biggest (and best?) government blunders of the last 30 years. No topic is dwelled on for too long and the pace of the book is fast enough to keep you engaged but slow en ...more

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Dec 13, 2014 Andrew Fish rated it liked it

To err is human, but to really screw up you need government.

Once, the theory goes, British Government was almost a brand name, a mark of quality and level-headedness. They considered policy carefully, enacted it efficiently and made the world a better place. In recent decades, however, it's all begun to unravel and governments of all stripes are now more blunder-prone than ever before.

It's an interesting theory, of course, but not, I suspect, particularly accurate. Lord North's loss of America o To err is human, but to really screw up you need government.

Once, the theory goes, British Government was almost a brand name, a mark of quality and level-headedness. They considered policy carefully, enacted it efficiently and made the world a better place. In recent decades, however, it's all begun to unravel and governments of all stripes are now more blunder-prone than ever before.

It's an interesting theory, of course, but not, I suspect, particularly accurate. Lord North's loss of America or Churchill's return to the Gold Standard are hardly shining examples of competence. Accepting the idea as more something to limit the amount of research the authors had to do, however, what we have in this book is a series of case studies spanning the terms of Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown, from the Poll Tax to Identity Cards, together with an analysis of the common elements which created those and other blunders. Foreign policy blunders are excluded, although there is a suggestion - probably not very popular with most people - that the Iraq War is not such a thing, or at least not in the decision to invade itself.

The authors are avowedly non-partisan in their approach, although critics on the left would undoubtedly observe that the majority of the cases are from the New Labour years, whilst critics on the right would see a monomania in bringing up the Poll Tax at each and every opportunity. Some of the cases will be familiar to anyone who was old enough to remember them - the Child Support Agency was a notorious disaster at the time, for example - whilst others, like the organisation of EU subsidies to farmers caused few ripples in the media in their day.

The case studies form the bulk of the book and make for interesting, if dispiriting reading. The analysis is then broken down into human failings like cultural disconnect and groupthink and system failings like changing ministers too often or failing to make ministries work together.

Unfortunately, the human failings are written with little understanding of psychology. You have to worry when the authors make a statement that most people are guilty of projecting their views onto other people, because the statement is in itself a projection and no psychologist would make such a sweeping statement without the evidence of countless studies. Perhaps this is what is meant when the blurb describes the book as ironic. Most of this section is also blindingly obvious and if this book is intended to help politicians not to blunder you do wonder how they could possibly get anything right if they aren't aware of these problems already. That said, Blair's sofa government was a classic case of a self-selecting group trying to avoid dissenting voices, so maybe I'm being too generous here.

With the system failings it feels as if the authors have more understanding of the problem; here, however, it is their conclusions which are concerning. The problem, they seem to feel, is that governments of all stripes are too prone to care about what the electorate will think and that we should be more like the Europeans, where voting is largely pretty futile as it always seems to return roughly the same coalition. Whilst the British are given to grumble about their governments, when pressed most would understand the need to sometimes make policy decisions which are not popular. They wouldn't, however, readily accept that the recent failures of our governments are due to their listening to the people too much. In fact, the authors' cause celebre of the Poll Tax is a prime case of where a government listened too little.

Ultimately, therefore, this book feels to me like Sir Humphrey's view of what is wrong with government, harking back to a glory day when the only blunders were those which led us to execute an admiral or two, but where nothing the government did achieved anything for the common man - largely because the common man didn't have a vote. Interesting, but not to be considered good advice for a democracy. ...more

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Jan 07, 2015 Geraldine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015, politics

Inevitably, this book will have more appeal to someone involved in Public Administration than the general reader, perhaps even the Politics geek.

As an auditor in Central Government for the best part of 25 years this book highlights the importance of an audit regime without ever quite saying that- although it frequently acknowledges NAO reports as prime source material.

As I read through the chapters, I repeatedly asked - what could Internal Audit have done? The NAO has the luxury of being able to Inevitably, this book will have more appeal to someone involved in Public Administration than the general reader, perhaps even the Politics geek.

As an auditor in Central Government for the best part of 25 years this book highlights the importance of an audit regime without ever quite saying that- although it frequently acknowledges NAO reports as prime source material.

As I read through the chapters, I repeatedly asked - what could Internal Audit have done? The NAO has the luxury of being able to apply hindsight while bayoneting the wounded. Internal Audit has the responsibility - in which it frequently fails - to say 'Hold on, this isn't going awfully well.'

Auditors must not comment on policy. The authors also note the absence of audit in the *formulation* of policy. This book highlights the importance of IA's focus on Governance, Skills, & Risk Management, but Audit also suffers in miniature from many of the root causes identified by the authors, including Group Think, cultural disconnect, and, in particular operational disconnect.

In hindsight, it would have been easy for an Internal Auditor to halt the Poll Tax early, not because of ideology, but because of the absence of systems to implement it in practice. Or perhaps, the lack of project documentation or something. But, given the determination of senior members of the Government to implement it, it's unlikely that the caution of an auditor would have been heeded, any more than other critics.

I would say that this is required reading for all Central Government Internal Auditors, anyone involved in project management in either the public sector or in a private sector firm providing public services. It should be read by anyone aspiring to be a Minister (or indeed current junior ministers).

I have rarely read a book that has left me so fed up and demotivated. All my years of political activism and conscientious audit have clearly amounted to almost nothing, except at the most granular level. I am by nature an optimist - I have faith that lessons can be learnt, that small, incremental improvements can add up to significant change - and that is demonstrated in the successes, or non-blunders, the authors refer to in passing. But the root causes are so entrenched, I don't see significant change happening in my lifetime. Most particularly in respect of interconnected issues - the lack of proper bipartisan scrutiny of the practicalities of legislation (Public Bill Committees divide on party lines and are more about ideological differences than asking 'how will this work?), the lack of deliberation before drafting legislation, the lack of attention to detail regarding delivery, the disregard for its impact on the people it affects.

If I was staying in Audit I would return frequently to this book. ...more

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Dec 06, 2013 Wilte rated it liked it

Very thorough (too much so at some points, and sometimes repetitive) book that describes various cases where the British Government has blundered in the past 30 years. In part III and IV, the authors describe and analyse common themes. Very good to look back and see which mistakes are made over and over again. Mistakes because of human psychology (part III) or the UK system (part IV).

In their Epilogue, King and Crewe write (p.399): "The fault lies not in particular parties or individuals but in ...more

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Sep 03, 2014 Akin rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, politics-and-government

Interesting, albeit revelatory mainly in terms of the scope of government blunders - Metronet, ID cards, Gordon Brown's tax credit fiasco, Black Wednesday, the Poll Tax - than the actual existence of these blunders. That said, it isn't that most of these issues were underreported, but rather that they were cast largely as political struggles rather than incompetence writ (very) large.

I suspect that the authors' refusal to take partisan sides concerning some of these issues might irritate some r ...more

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Jul 30, 2015 Mark rated it liked it

I came to this book with high expectations, it being described as required reading by some of our course leaders. It has glowing reviews on the front and back covers from most of the major newspapers and has been lauded by plenty of political pundits.

But the examples of policy blunders that it provides will be familiar to anyone who hasn't lived in a hole for the past twenty years (poll tax, tax credits, the PFI for the London Underground, the Millenium Dome celebrations...) and the recommendati ...more

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Sep 21, 2016 Benjamin Richards rated it liked it

Don't get me wrong, I have a vested interest in the subject matter but this is one of the driest books I've ever had the grim pleasure of wading through. I have read the Illyad and the Odyssey, I've read Henry David Thoreau, I have read some tough books and this is right up there with the toughest.

Another reviewer complained about the proclivity of the word 'blunder' in the book, to be fair, the authors do use it a LOT, but only in the introduction and yet, to a distraction.

The book itself sheds ...more

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Feb 15, 2018 Gavin rated it liked it

Insofar as anything is uncontroversial in politics – the most mired of intellectual backwaters – this sticks to uncontroversial blunders. So we only get the internally incoherent or screwy policies like Suez; poll tax; ERM Black Wednesday. (The book’s larger point is that there are more and more of these to come, because of the shape of Westminster’s gears.)

They've a compressed, formal style – hiding their anger. So ministerial ignorance and snobbishness gets called "cultural disconnect".

First ...more

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About Anthony King

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Anthony King was a Millennium Professor of British Government at the University of Essex. He broadcasted frequently on politics and elections for the BBC and wrote on the same subjects for the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Observer.