Some stuff is much better and some stuff is much worse, as people have said in other comments.
But what is certainly true is that that's a far better result than the typical government IT project. Give me the gov.uk "debacle" (which it ain't) any day over the DWP or the NHS PfIT...
You can't make things better without making choices. Much like Apple products, that's bound to piss off some people. But once you have something that's actually good at something, instead of just being mediocre all around, it's perhaps possible to over time grow that into something that's good at multiple things.
All other experiences of government websites show sites that are just universally meh or bad. Gov.uk has been the first government website where I thought "wow, that's neat."
This is leagues ahead of the previous approaches to developing governmental services. Like you I'd happily take gov.uk over DWP or the NHS PfIT. Even their failures are handled more productively.
But what is certainly true is that that's a far better result than the typical government IT project. Give me the gov.uk "debacle" (which it ain't) any day over the DWP or the NHS PfIT...
You can't make things better without making choices. Much like Apple products, that's bound to piss off some people. But once you have something that's actually good at something, instead of just being mediocre all around, it's perhaps possible to over time grow that into something that's good at multiple things.
All other experiences of government websites show sites that are just universally meh or bad. Gov.uk has been the first government website where I thought "wow, that's neat."