Reporting on the workings of Britain's government

It is hard to believe that the collective faults of the Government in the period can be explained, as Michael Quinlan suggests in his concluding essay, by a lack of prior ministerial experience within the Blair administration. Whilst the Labour Cabinet which committed British military forces to Iraq in 2003 lacked a Crossman, Jenkins or Healey (amongst others) to temper its deliberations, it bore the combined weight of several PhDs in history and many years of expensive legal training. It is particularly disappointing to note, therefore--as does W.G. Runciman--that those at the centre of decision-making during this period, in No. 10, the JIC and the BBC, were not more discerning in their use, analysis and presentation of the sources. What seems to have been lacking was not experience or intelligence (in the sense of heightened mental capacity) but that elusive, indispensable and utterly 'un-sexy' concept of common sense with which to apply it--whether over the course of 45-minutes or longer. Hutton and Butler: Lifting the Lid on the Workings of Power offers important insights into fundamental issues of trust, governance, ethics, the law and accountability which should merit it, as it deserves, a wide and appreciative readership. Yet the moral of the book may be expressed within the compass of a single phrase--too much intelligence, and not enough brains.

Dr Richard A. Gaunt is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Nottingham.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning