I sat next to Gordon Brown at the Chequers seminar (Sat 10/10/09) as he he took copious notes – he was clearly having no problem writing, so I don’t know what all the fuss is over his eyesight?

I almost didn’t get to Chequers (the Prime Ministers country residence) on Saturday for a seminar on “Equality, Fairness and Responsibility in the Post-Crisis Society” convened by the PM and chaired by Ed Miliband.

Don’t dismantle the public domain because of this latest one…. see my article in today’s Guardian. See also my brief comment on George Osborne’s ‘cull’ of Whitehall in todays Financial Times.

A news story today apparently sent some in Whitehall into a bit of a tail spin – according to the BBC: Professor David MacKay told the BBC that reductions in carbon dioxide emissions since 1990 are “an illusion”. “Our energy footprint has decreased over the last few decades and that’s largely because we’ve exported our industry,” […]

The central message from Labour’s conference in Brighton is that “ideology is back” in British politics. Emphasising differences on the economy, the financial crisis and public spending, Labour has sought to depict an ideological gulf between themselves and their Tory opponents. Labour is the party of public service – the Tories of markets.

How can we be talking at the same time about shrinking public spending on core services while propping up the banks? FOR FULL TEXT SEE MY LATEST COLUMN FOR PUBLIC FINANCE.

A very well-balanced and interesting BBC programme and article by journalist Michael Blastland on the UK experience with performance targets, especially in the NHS. Well worth a read/listen.

Professor Joseph S. Nye (Harvard) spoke this morning at the Maxwell School (Syracuse), where I am currently a guest. Nye is famous for coining the phrases ‘soft power’ and ‘smart power’ – both of which have slipped into the political lexicon.

I am in the USA for two weeks, and am amazed by the vitriol of the political debate. We get only mild echoes in the UK of just how polarised American politics has become and how much rage appears to be about. CNN is even running a series next week entitled “Mad as Hell” about […]

At last Gordon Brown has uttered the “c” word – cuts. Although everyone knows that some level of cutback in public spending is going to be necessary, all attention has focused on the “will he, won’t he” question of whether the Prime Minister would use the ‘cuts’ word.