There will be many tributes today to Professor Anthony King of Essex University who has died at the age of 82.

He had an outstanding academic career serving as Professor of Government at Essex University for almost half a century, and for years was the recognisable face of election punditry on television.

Yet despite a long catalogue of highly regarded books on Margaret Thatcher, the SDP’s rise and fall and several election analyses, he may yet be remembered most for a book he wrote in later life – The Blunders of Our Governments, co-authored with Ivor Crewe who is happily still with us. It is an exceptional book, rightly winning the Political book of the Year award in 2014.

It resonates with the Consultation Institute because it pinpoints much of the blame for the sad litany of case studies explored in the book on beautifully elegant phrase – the deficit of deliberation. Our view was that this meant inadequate or non-existent public or stakeholder consultation, and it was great to have this interpretation confirmed when Professor King accepted our invitation to speak at the Institute’s 2015 Conference in London.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNZapICuMAQ

Precisely three years ago, we sent Institute members a summary of the key findings from this book as Tuesday Topic 252 under the title ‘Lessons from screw-ups – a new book sheds light on Government blunders – and concludes we need ‘more deliberation’.

Final thoughts are that Anthony King dies at a time when a British Government has to wrestle with complex, generation-defining decisions as part of BREXIT, and amid allegations that it is not consulting relevant stakeholders – such as Parliament. Also, that he leaves the stage at a critical time in US public life, and recalling that in 1997 he published a book called Why America’s Politicians Campaign Too Much and Govern Too Little!!!