BLUNDERS: things which went wrong, which were foreseeable, but which the government did anyway.

A very strong executive (government) makes it possible for policies to get rushed into place, without proper checks or thinking.

No consensus + No consultation = Ineffective policies

Behavioural causes of BLUNDERS:

• Ignorance
• Prejudice
• Lack of judgement.
• Lack of appropriate/relevant experience
• No rewards or sanctions
• Over confidence
• Careless
• Stubborn
• Cultural Gap: don't understand voters

Structural causes of BLUNDERS:

• Poorly designed decision-making processes.
• Deficit of deliberation – too efficient & decisive; scrutiny disempowered.
• Operational disconnect. Professional politicians haven't run anything. No long-term responsibility

Parliament – becomes a bit of an irrelevant spectator.

• Whips ensure that Parliament is not able to rein in this behaviour.
• Scrutiny committees are disempowered by party loyalties, and by ministers either pressuring their fellow party members or simply bypassing the scrutiny process – and sometimes parliament itself – altogether.
• Public accounts committee (actually one of the most useful bits of what Westminster does) only checks on activity after the fact.

All of that does not add up to a recipe for good government.

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