Attentive subscribers may have noticed I’ve been posting slightly less frequently over the last 4-5 months.1 I can now reveal the reason: I’ve signed a book contract with Polity, a non-fiction publishing house.
The book is provisionally titled Don't Sweat the Small Stuff: How Good Intentions Make Bad Policy, and will look at how many of Britain's problems are because we've prioritised process over outcomes, and how many decisions which seem well-intentioned and reasonable in isolation combine to produce major system-wide problems. Chapters will look in turn at classic public policy failures such as our failure to build a reservoir in 35 years, an 80% drop in the number of childminders, the Treasury deciding to remove its numeracy requirements or the ‘Manhattan skyline’ of Britain’s income tax system, examining both why we ended up where we are - and how we could do better.
For those wanting a sneak preview, the inspiration for the book was my 2023 post: The Worm’s-Eye View and Outcome Indifference.2 On the back of that, the editor contacted me and asked if I’d have any interest in writing a book; a few exchanges and a formal proposal later, here we are! I’ll also be drawing on some elements from my Seven Public Policy Rules of Thumb - plus, naturally, plenty of things that aren’t in either.
My deadline to deliver the first draft is 31 May 2027. I’m not sure how long it will take to get into the bookshops after that - but you can be sure that I’ll be encouraging you all to buy a copy!
And now for something completely different…
If you can’t wait for next year, in the meantime you can buy my two works of fantasy, Imperial Visions and Visions in Exile. These, surprisingly, also feature a senior official frustrated by bureaucracy from carrying out a major infrastructure project but are, in all other respects, entirely different.3
More details can be found on the Fiction page.
Or, alternatively, take out a paid subscription, which will get you access to both future posts and the back-catalogue of those in the archive.
Though the stats suggest I’ve still managed a few bangers.
My original proposed title was ‘Worm’s-Eye Nation’, but Polity’s publicist said - fairly! - that if it was called that, no-one would understand what it was about.
Suffice it to say that ‘Misappropriate the funds and hope you’ll be forgiven after the demons invade’ is not going to be one of the proposed policy solutions in Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.
Congratulations Iain!
Wow, can’t wait to read it!