A couple of days ago we asked the Phi100 Panel of Westminster ‘insiders’, which includes, leading politicians, policy, and media figures, about realistic targets for reducing the UK’s burgeoning public debt.

I am currently on holiday then finishing off a book over August so posts will be restricted until September (don’t all cheer at once)..

The latest scandal to hit British politics is the widespread alleged wire(less) tapping of phones by News International (Rupert Murdoch’s) News of the World (NoW). The political dimension is focused on the Tories – their Communication supremo Andy Coulson is the former Editor of the NoW who resigned over – the same allegations.

OK – I confess – I am a SciFi-natic, since I was knee high to a grass-hopper. So no surprise I am watching this weeks BBC blockbuster Torchwood: Children of Earth. (Torchwood are a fictional bunch of alien fighters set up by Queen Victoria – yes, her, it’s a long story).

This is a fairly common derogatory phrase in the UK – meaning whatever is being talked about is somehow irrelevant to real life and of no real consequence. ( I am not sure how current it is in other countries).

[Feature in Public Servant] Just how transparent and open can our political parties claim to be when they have yet to come clean about their tax and spend proposals? Colin Talbot argues for some honest answers before an election Transparency seems to be the current “in” word in British politics. And yet we could be […]

Today it has been announced that Harrow Council (London) has dropped a Court case being brought against a mother who tried to get her child into a popular school by allegedly falsifying information (she claimed to be living at her mother’s which was in the School catchment area, rather than her family home, which wasn’t). […]

The answer to the question posed in the previous post: the BBC had got it wrong. The education white paper published today makes it clear there will be not legal enforcement available to parents:

This morning BBC Radio news is reporting that today’s Education White Paper will set legally enforceable rights. Either the Beeb has got it wrong, or this is the fastest U-turn in history – or maybe the Government is just in another muggle.

Today I have heard several reporters on the BBC, not to mention various print journalists, getting over excited about the ‘gaff’ by Lord Mandelson ‘admitting’ there was not going to be a Spending Review this year, or this side of a General Election – shock, horror!