Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

How to get nothing done

I sometimes wonder whether our government makes any decisions at all. In fact I’m trying to think of any area of public policy that is not the subject of a review, commission, inquiry or similar. The most charitable explanation for this trend is that it worsened in the coalition years. Whenever the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives couldn’t agree on anything they could always kick the matter into the long grass by commissioning a review. So much better than risking upsetting Nick Clegg.

All this of course has a deep impact on the country, because it means nothing actually gets done. I am sure you will all remember the Casey review (2016). This was commissioned by David Cameron’s government from the admirable Louise (now Baroness) Casey. Its remit was to look into problems of integration in the UK. After much work, Casey delivered her review, was thanked for it, and I am sure that you will all agree that in the years since we have all noticed integration in the UK improve massively. For instance, now when a mob wants to shut down a film in Leicester or get a Batley school teacher fired for ‘blasphemy’, they can do it much faster than they could a decade ago.

You may also remember that after the London Bridge terror attack (or London Bridge 1, as it was soon to be known) the then prime minister, Theresa May, said: ‘Enough is enough.’ To which I am sure that the Islamists thought (as I did): ‘Ooooh. Tough talk.’ May then announced that she had personally had enough of young girls being blown up at pop concerts and women having their throats slashed on London Bridge, so she was going to commission a review. ‘Not a review!’ said every Islamist in chorus.

The also admirable Sara Khan was appointed to lead said review and immediately got to the heart of the matter by requesting that academics in the UK send in papers analysing what problems they believed could exist in the UK in relation to extremism in Britain.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in