We have never had so many rules, and so few decisions.

Planning permission for one road ran to 359,000 pages and took sixteen years. A railway lost its northern half and still tripled its budget. A hospital met its targets while its patients went unwashed. Each time, everyone followed procedure, and no one was responsible.

This is not a story of bad people or the wrong ideology. It is a story of design. Modern politics has replaced judgement with management, decision with process, and responsibility with a mille-feuille of committees, frameworks and reviews, layer upon layer, until no one can say I decided this.

The End of Decision explains how it happened, and why the usual escapes make it worse:

• why bureaucracies turn moral when they stop deciding
• why "temporary" measures never go away
• why Marxism, technocracy, populism and purity politics all fail the same test
• why strong leaders need fewer brakes on acting, and strong brakes on staying

Short, sharp and deliberately provocative, this book takes no party's side. It takes aim at the whole system, including your camp.

Before you vote again, ask the only question that matters: who decides, and who pays the price if they are wrong?