March 20, 2025

No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision.

Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989), American historian, writer, August 1914 (1962), Jay p.372

Is there any one of your political acquaintances whom you would trust to make, all alone, the right “hard, fast and specific decision” on some important matter?

This is a truth that every government based on the deliberative model, not just that of the U.K., faces all of the time. Deliberation—discussion leading to a resolution—sometimes seems interminable, often inversely proportional to the importance of the topic, and so process-ridden that any quick decision is almost impossible.