A sensible proposal

'Abolish Westminster!' That's the title and summary argument of Adam Ramsay's new book.

If, to some ears, it sounds like a provocative or 'extreme' slogan, a few moments engagement with Ramsay's considerations and evidence will persuade you that he is in fact addressing serious issues in a thoughtful, radical and hopeful way.

As the publishers Faber and Faber state, 'go to any street in Britain and ask people what they think about politics, and most will tell you that it is broken', that they don't trust politicians, and that our system doesn’t work, or that it works only for a chosen few, the elites.

Ramsay makes the case that 'most people are in fact correct: our politics is broken ... examining the lack of accountability faced by our major governmental departments, the pliancy of our cultural institutions and the malleability of national identity, his book reveals how power and money are often bent back to the powerful and wealthy – and how, historically, this has almost always been the case, producing disastrous effects'.

Ramsay's argument for a radical re-establishment of democratic structures and practice is based on an insightful analysis of the democratic deficit that plagues the (dis)UK's political system.

You can hear Adam Ramsay discussing his book in a range of places over the coming weeks: the book launches this Wednesday 4 November at the Portobello bookshop (Adam will be joined by Josie Long); he is at the Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh on Sunday 8 November, in conversation with human rights lawyer Jen Ang and Q Manivannan MSP (part of the Radical Book Fair organised by the city's excellent Lighthouse bookshop); and will then be in Glasgow on Wednesday 11 November at the Waterstones branch on Sauchiehall Street.

Published 1 November 2026