Having inherited a probation service that was creaking at the seams, he decided to privatise the whole thing, turning over the delicate business of managing ex-offenders to a selection of security firms that had no experience of that kind of work. Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive.

If, like me, you don’t like bad news, you have the option of skipping the depressing revelations I have mentioned so far and going straight to page 328. This is a fascinating and deeply unsettling read - and the fact that it is unsettling should make it a necessary read for everyone in the UK. If it were and included explanation to these levels, both good and bad, then maybe there would be a chance for future reintroduction of practical moral sanity to our electoral and political systems. If you frequently find yourself baffled and infuriated by the goings-on in Westminster, this is the book for you.

Dunt finds that only lobbying from MPs brought about a belated, incomplete, plan to evacuate Afghans who had worked for the British and consequently were in danger of death; many were killed. And according to the residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa - the world's longest-living people - finding it is the key to a longer and more fulfilled life. Electronic voting should be introduced to allow the report stage more time for debate, reducing the power of the whips and increasing the potential for rebellion against government edicts.

When he advocates change, it is because his book has shown how an existing set of incentives is ensuring failure. Thereafter, under Conservative governments to the present, specialist accountants, digital and data experts and project managers were appointed from outside while most civil servants remained essentially generalist. Increasingly, they were moved around departments, no longer building up experience relevant to one department. Then, Thatcher rejected criticism of government policies and regarded all public service professionals as self-satisfied, inward looking, and out of touch with modern needs. Governments and departments should also bring back the effective press offices which were once normal and kept journalists adequately informed.The Westminster government can further control the process by determining the daily timetable, curtailing debate when it wishes. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. So also should Ministers at all levels, even if this requires placing experts in the House of Lords to enable their appointment to a Ministry. This is an absolutely excoriating insight into the failures - both intentionally designed and through institutional sloth - of the UK's political system. A Commission should direct tax policy, and spending policy should increase its focus on long-term growth.

The third chapter describes how, especially since the 1980s, PMs have increased control over their parties and government institutions. Knowledge is empowerment, and this is the sort of change where a knowledgeable public putting pressure is a good way forwards. Turnover and resignations reached unprecedented levels after Brexit in 2020, leaving unfilled vacancies for senior staff. In Love Is Not Enough, Mark’s first Audible Original, you’ll follow five real people over the course of six months as they navigate f--ked up romantic situations, ranging from dating app addiction to marital affairs to absurd fantasies. A feasible change to political journalism could result from a government fund to finance a revival of local journalism to provide information on the impacts of public policy, comparable, Dunt suggests, to BBC local news programs.If there was room for one more chapter, I would have liked to see something about how those changes could actually be achieved.