The inestimable Atul Gawande (author of The Checklist Manifesto) has done it again with a brilliant little column in the New Yorker.

So, it appears fairly certain now that the Coalition Government is going to announce – sometime next year – Spending Review 2013.

Here’s the summary of my contributions to yesterday’s discussion on the Guardian Public Leaders Network.

I understand something of the frustration and anger of the relatives of the Hillsborough victims because I had a similar experience – albeit on a much smaller scale. British officialdom has a cult of secrecy and cover-up that is still with us, even if is has gotten slightly better. In 1982 my younger brother Gary, […]

It is quite likely we are moving, hesitatingly and perhaps not in a straight line, towards an era of coalition governments in the UK.

[President Obama] “took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have, and one that was essential to the task at hand.  He had almost no experience working in a business.  Jobs to him are about government.” Mitt Romney in his acceptance speech. I was struck by this largely ignored passage in Mitt Romney’s acceptance […]

The Government’s decision to use an administrative sledgehammer to crack the nut of relatively minor possible abuses of Universities student visa’s is a disgrace.

We were told, when the new Coalition Government came to be, that it would put an end to “New Labour targetry”. The use of targets for public sector performance had become a bête noir of both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in Opposition and they apparently couldn’t wait to scrap the whole lot once they were in […]

Today’s highly dubious announcement of supposed ‘efficiency savings’ by the Government reinforces the need for independent Standards for reporting performance and efficiency in the public sector. Today I’ve published a ‘White Paper’ calling for changes to achieve that.