Status Updates From How Westminster Works . . ....

Reading about the Treasury, scrutinising other bodies but in itself having centralised power post-Brown, was interesting. So was the sheer workload of ministers.

The reshuffling of ministers and their ability to change anything made me more in favour of codification. Something could be perfect and still change, just so a minister can say they’ve done something. Every 18 months.

Learning about spads in more detail was eye-opening, especially under Johnson. 44 spads just for himself, the number of spads doubling under him since 2010… he really was just a figurehead!

The things about the Policy + Delivery Unit were interesting in retrospect. They would have been useful for the NHS during COVID but the government ruined it for themselves.

Moving onto the chapter about ministers, nothing seems to be about expertise in Westminster.

Got a bit bored by the things about Number 10, the physical rooms, and all of the subsections of Parliament.

I cannot believe that MPs have been manhandled and physically assaulted for going against the whip. That is appalling.

The role of an MP seems traumatic and inauthentic— the latter not being their fault but that of the whips and societal expectations.