Customer Rating:  
Summary: Compelling and idealistic view of the inside of Government
Comment: It is odd to read this book while the Labour bubble, following Northern Rock, lost HMRC discs, botched election planning and donorgate, is fast deflating. It captures the enthusiasm of Labour's earlier period in office. Barber himself seems remarkably smart and able and he pleas early in the book that we should appreciate our politicians more. Most are presented sympathetically in this book. To this detached reader he sings Labour's praises rather too loudly and lays into the 'directionless' Major years without providing key evidence about why they were so bad (he starts by praising Gillian Shepherd as education minister and Blair saying ideas shouldn't be ruled out because they are Conservative ones). At the end of 2007,Labour's experiment of throwing cash at public services seems to have failed and the public finances are now in far poorer shape than they were in 1997. There are interesting vignettes, particularly surrounding the civil service mentality (any supporter of small government will read this and be appalled) and the importance of sending the right message to the Press. Also, most telling of all, is Labour's (especially Blair's) lack of experience of running anything when they came to office. I suppose the best you could say is that they tried and meant well, but how much better managed are public services today? , More parents are opting out of state education where they can afford it(as Barber himself did), the NHS remains a monolith, and few people would describe UK transport as a shining success story. The wider public will be profoundly sceptical. But this is a compelling, revealing portrait of life inside Number 10.
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