On the whole, the UK Gov is actually quite good at digital services. Much better than any of my experiences with services offered by the US, Canada or France.

> Much better than any of my experiences with services offered by the US, Canada or France.

That's not hard to be better in the case of France, half of the procedures require to send some physical letter and the rest are accessible on some atrocious websites.

You're absolutely right, there's still a very old-school mentality when it comes to French bureaucracy.

The UK government is often quoted as a leading example on how to run digital services well. A fuckup would be a surprise.

The UK civil service is great - although it strikes me as someone really good was given the power and budget to make it happen.

The UK government however...

You are spot on there. Here is Tom Loosemore (one of the originators of the Government Digital Service) explaining how it came to be:

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/abfe49d3-f24c-4b93-b8e...

Unfortunately the spend control that GDS had, has been removed.