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

I thought there would be more specialists in the civil service, but it seems not. They just seem like another minister, but completely unaccountable to the public because they are employed, appointed, not elected. They even experience that cabinet reshuffle carousel, but so much more often.

It is ridiculous that people in charge of eg establishing policy to boost the economy don’t know anything about the economy!

The Treasury chapter finished. Not as interesting since I’m not economically literate, but there is really no scrutiny on so many of these departments.

I know COVID had an economic impact on children but I hope for it to be discussed socially in this book. School shouldn’t just be for developing employees.

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!