Can we fix the dysfunctional state?

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2025 at Church House and the Abbey Centre, Westminster, on Saturday 18 October.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

Is the British state broken? Voters increasingly seem to think so. From seemingly out-of-control rents, taxes, mortgages and bills to a dysfunctional health service, few of the building blocks of modern life seem to work well in contemporary Britain.

On the face of it, the extreme disfunction of the country is odd. Britain is not just home to the so-called ‘Rolls Royce civil service’ but also dominated by elites whose claim to their position is that they have unique technical and managerial skills that ordinary people lack. British institutions are dominated by targets, performance reviews, experts and managers. Yet each government seems less able than the last to deliver on its promises.

Some argue that the rot is deeper than mere dysfunction. The state seems to view the nation with unbridled suspicion, relying on propaganda, secrecy and cover-ups. The recent Afghanistan scandal – where it emerged that successive governments had engaged in a comprehensive cover-up to avoid scrutiny of a massive data leak and a top-secret plan to fly thousands of Afghans to the UK – seems a case in point. Other scandals, like the grooming gangs or the miscarriage of justice for sub-postmasters, point to a similar level of deep, institutional complicity. But it not just scandals. The so-called ‘Boriswave’ – the enormous surge in migration, post-Brexit, presided over by Boris Johnson – seems to confirm ordinary people’s suspicions that, no matter how they vote, the elites respond time and again with the same policies.

Is it less a case, then, of how to reform the state than how to totally re-imagine it? A number of new initiatives, from Fix Britain to Dominic Cummings’s plan to reshape government, argue for systematic changes to make the state respond to political priorities. The Civil Service regularly comes in for particular scrutiny. When civil servants are not being accused of laziness for preferring to work from home, they are described as actively hostile to national political priorities – a kind of deep state, a behind-the-scenes government, unaccountable to anyone. This was summed up by the remarks of Gus O’Donnell, formerly the UK’s most senior civil servant, who claimed: ‘I think it’s my job to maximise global welfare not national welfare.’

Certainly, not all civil servants think in such hostile terms. Many of them point to a lack of leadership, not just inside the Civil Service, but politically as well. Indeed, the whole culture of targets, reviews, DEI and other elements of managerialism seem to actively frustrate anyone who wants to actually get things done. In response, Reform UK has proposed bringing into government more individuals with business experience to totally change the culture. But is this a question of technocratic skills or something deeper?

So, what’s behind the crisis of the British state? Is it a question of incompetence, or leadership? Do we need better incentives, managers and experts, or something more far-reaching? In fact, is the failure of the state more a failure of politics – an absence of political vision, will and, above all, a drive to actually represent the concerns of the wider nation at the heart of government?

SPEAKERS
Lord David Frost
member of the House of Lords

Munira Mirza
chief executive, Civic Future

Jacob Reynolds
head of policy, MCC Brussels; associate fellow, Academy of Ideas

Andreas Wesemann
partner, Ashcombe Advisers LLP

CHAIR
Claire Fox
director, Academy of Ideas; independent peer, House of Lords; author, I STILL Find That Offensive!