Failed State
The Top Five Sunday Times Bestseller
'Excellent . . . persuasive . . . convincing' – The Times
'Funny, whipsmart and devastating. Sanity on steroids' – Emily Maitlis
'Fantastic. An exquisite analysis' – The Secret Barrister
Why does nothing work in Britain?
It’s harder than ever to get a GP appointment. Burglaries go unpunished. Rivers are overrun with sewage. Real wages have been stagnant for years, even as the cost of housing rises inexorably. Why is everything going wrong at the same time?
It's easy to blame dysfunctional politicians who are out for themselves. But, in reality, it’s more complicated. Politicians can make things better or worse, but all work within our state institutions. And ours are utterly broken.
In Failed State, Sam Freedman, one of Britain's leading policy experts, offers a devastating analysis of where we’ve gone wrong. With historical depth and plenty of infuriating examples, he explains why British governance has fallen so far behind. Speaking to politicians of all stripes, civil servants and workers on the frontline, this book bursts with insight on the real problems that are so often hidden from the front pages. The result is a witty, landmark book that paves the way for a fairer and more prosperous Britain.
'We can only hope that every member of the new government will read and digest this book' – David Aaronovitch, BBC Radio 4 Presenter
'Brilliantly timed and frighteningly true' – Sir Anthony Seldon, bestselling author of Johnson at 10
Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and a senior adviser to Ark Schools. He writes about policy and politics for numerous outlets including the Financial Times, Sunday Times, Guardian and New Statesman. With his father, he runs ‘Comment is Freed’, Britain’s most popular politics Substack. He has a following of over 140,000 on X.
He has spent his career working in different policy-focused roles around Westminster, including as an adviser to the leader of the opposition and three years at the Department for Education as a senior policy adviser. Failed State is his first book.