I think I was the first person to suggest Anne Widdecombe for Speaker (see on this blog) so I’m glad to see she’s taken the hint. (Although I doubt I really had anything to do with it). Her idea of an interim Speaker pending the election of a “post-expenses row” House of Commons also makes […]
Breakfast with Brown: What Should The Government Do?
After attending the Prime Ministers breakfast seminar in No. 10 on the future of public services my overwhelming feeling was that the government is still in thrall to the tyranny of the new. An underlying theme was that they needed something ‘new’ to offer.
Doing the BIS: Lord Mandelson’s New Empire
The two-year-old Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) has been merged with the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) to create a new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS or is it just BIS?).
Will Hutton on Prime Ministerial power and public administration
In a great article in today’s Oberserver, Will Hutton reviews the origins of the current political crisis in the UK in the constitutional set-up which confers monarchical powers on Prime Ministers, something I have written about frequently here and in the pages of Public Finance – see for example this one…
Taking Dave Seriously
David Cameron’s rhetoric on reforming Westminster sounds great, but a dissection of his policies reveals a lack of substance. Instead of being an enemy of democracy, bureaucracy remains an essential friend. See Public Finance for the rest…
Breakfast with the PM – but who will it be?
Next Thursday morning (11th June) I am supposed to be attending a breakfast seminar in 10 Downing St. “hosted” by the Prime Minister on the future of public services – and I’m left wondering after the last 24 hours – which PM will it be? This is supposed to be a blog-site about Whitehall (public […]
Blears: Joined-Up Jargon Queen Quits Government
Hazel Blears, Communities and Local Government Secretary in the Labour Government has announced her decision to leave the government on the eve of local government elections in England, in what is being widely seen as direct attack on PM Gordon Brown. “In this next phase of my political life I am redoubling my efforts to […]
Spending Reviews may survive Tory victory
Despite my doubts that the Conservatives would ditch the whole “Spending Reviews” (medium-term budgets plus performance targets) system, it appears they may not, at least not entirely. Philip Johnson of the Daily Telegraph reported in an excellent article in Public Finance that the Tories plan to retain the Spending Reviews – although I have since learnt that […]
66.6 – The Real Nature of the Beast
Three hundred and sixty-six Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem MPs claimed between £20,000 and £23,083 (the maximum) in Additional Costs Allowances (ACA) last year which just happens to work out at 66.6 (recurring) percent of MPs from the 3 main parties.
Failing to learn – or learning to fail?
Kieran Walshe The question more public sector organisations should be asking themselves is: “How can we learn to get better?” Knowledge is very freely shared in the sector, with lots of encouragement to learn from good practice and few proprietorial or competitive barriers, but the way public bodies take in and learn from that information […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- …
- 50
- Next Page »