Hello and welcome. This is an audio recording of an IFG live event.

Good evening and welcome to the Institute for Government. I'd like to warmly welcome

everybody who's joining us both in the room here tonight and those of us who are joining us online.

We're here, of course, to hear the annual director's lecture from our director, Bronwyn Maddox.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is David Liddington.

I am one of the trustees of the Institute for Government.

Before that, I was myself in government and a minister and in the cabinet for a number of years.

I'm delighted to say that after the last two years, we are back.

We are actually here in the building, a handful of us, at least.

And what the last two years have taught us is that there is an art to running virtual events.

So those of you who are at home or in your offices and joining us online, please feel welcome to ask questions

when we get to that stage. You will find that the Slydo platform provides a facility for doing

that, and I would encourage everybody to think through what questions you'd like to ask,

to pose your questions, your challenges.

And I will call as many as possible people who are online,

as well as those who are in the room when we get to questions.

The subject Romwen has chosen to speak on

is what's wrong with Britain's government.

Now, some of you may say that this will take a little longer

than the next hour and a half to examine in detail,

but I'm sure Bronman will take us pithily straight to the point and get us all thinking

about what the problems are and just as important what the solutions would be.

...