Ian Dunt Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2024, PB, 448pp, £9.49, 978-1399602747

Most of us have a vague idea about the inner workings of Government, but how many of us really understand the details, such as how and why we have first, second, and third readings of proposed legislation in the House of Commons, and how statutory instruments allow Government to make new laws without any effective scrutiny? We see the sometimes polished but mostly tarnished exterior of the Westminster bubble through the constant stream of daily and weekly media reports. For greater insights we have the steady output of political autobiographies that inflate the successes of their political authors. More recently we have many books on what has gone wrong with politics fuelled by transparently bad Government and possibly too much spare time for their authors in the pandemic lockdowns.

Ian Dunt, a political journalist, broadcaster, and author, has written an easy-to-read explainer about how our UK Government, in Westminster, is supposed to work and how it actually does work. To show the archaic ways of …