In a piece at his Hilarious Pessimist blog, Dalrymple summarizes the state of government in Britain, and probably of most of the Western world:

If one could summarise the most important trend in the British public service of the last thirty or so years, it is the de facto legalisation of corruption. A nomenklatura class has been created and fostered by government that has been allowed, on the pretext of being necessary to the efficient running of whatever branch it works in, to loot the public purse to the most obvious private advantage. This class, instead of seeking to perform its duties as efficiently as possible for as little as possible, has the incentive, and more importantly the permission, to act in precisely the opposite way. Inefficiency makes more work, more work means more responsibility, more responsibility justifies higher pay. The only slight brake on the whole process is fear of public scandal and exposure.