'The Silent State' by Heather Brooke

I find it difficult to say anything useful about The Silent State by Heather Brooke. It's another book about how British democracy isn't the best money can buy and bureaucracy has resulted in people being afraid of their Governments rather than Governments afraid of their people, but even though Brooke gets maximum respect for her part in uncovering Ministers expenses it does get a little tedious that every example of wrongdoing is followed by "Of course this wouldn't happen in the United States where we do things better. " Cue grinding of teeth. Although I agree that actual openness rather than the pretend version you get under the Freedom of Information Act would probably be a good thing, and the 'paying twice' that the taxpayers do for something like Ordnance Survey or Royal Mail is a scandal, I'm sure that politicians and bureaucrats will still find ways to subvert the will of the people and do their own thing.

A good present for the starry-eyed idealist in your life that you want to disenchant perhaps.