“Everythingism”: the policy disease paralysing Britain

Gabriel Whitwam | 8th April 2025 | Comment, Magazine

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Britain’s policymakers are trying to make every policy achieve every goal — and ending up achieving none. From spiders halting housing to carbon targets blocking diplomacy, “everythingism” is paralysing decision-making.

“Distinguished jumping spider" (Attulus distinguendus) recently stopped a new town centre being built in Kent. Natural England declared Ebbsfleet Central West a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) earlier this year after discovering a colony of the spiders. Suburbs of "Ebbsfleet Garden City", centred around the high-speed railway station, have already been built, but construction of the town centre has now been halted. It might be easy to laugh this off as a one-off, but it is an example of the consequences of "everythingism", a worryingly common phenomenon in UK policy-making. "Everythingism" is the idea that every government project or policy should promote every policy objective. It has been coined by Joe Hill, in a recent essay for the think tank Reform, based on Ezra Klein's "Everything-Bagel Liberalism". Housing projects have to take into account nutrient neutrality and provide apprenticeships, and prisons have to have 50 per cent female prison officers, all while maximisi...

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