The ‘Arab Spring’ has raised, yet again, the issue of how modern publication administrations can be created in emerging and transitional states – especially ones that have long lived with some sort of autocratic regime. At next years IRSPM Conference in Rome (11-13 April 2012) Beryl Radin (American University) and I are organising a panel […]

PA Times (USA) 21 September 2001 The column below was written immediately after 9/11 and published by the US magazine PA Times. You can find the archived online version here. I was going to write a fresh piece for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, but I think this stands the test of time rather better […]

I wrote earlier this year for Huffington Post (UK) about the differences between the UK and USA when it comes to Universities and Public Policy – in exactly the opposite way most would suppose.  Whilst the more government-sceptic USA has lots of activity in Universities, the UK is notably weak – at least when it […]

The right-wing Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has come up with one its most potty ideas yet – a “military style” Free School staffed by ex-service people to impose discipline on youths involved in gang culture.

Gaddafi is gone, and Libya faces a new future. Of course, the fighting is not completely over and he and his scions are still at large, but few doubt the regime is no more.

“In my last comment I demonstrated that the US public debt is not very large, and its annual servicing quite small.  It occurred to me (and to several people who wrote to me in response to my comment), that it might be illuminating to carry out a similar exercise for the annual public deficit.  You […]

So, the riots have come. They had an almost inevitable quality to them – indeed last December I outlined one scenario for when they would happen (see The Great Train Wreck of 2013).

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude claims that the government has made ‘staggering’ savings of £3.75bn in the 10 months May 2010 to March 2011. So just how staggering, and credible, are these claims?

When I was a Trostkyist, back before the last Ice Age, one of our favorite slogans was “workers control”. It is therefore somewhat weird to hear Tory and Liberal Democrat ministers extolling the virtues of ‘liberating the workers’ to run public services, and how they will improve as a result. The new White Paper on […]

I have great respect for the veteran political commentator Peter Riddell, and his new book, “In Defence of Politicians, in spite of themselves” deserves to be widely read. It contains much sage analysis and wise advice and much I agree with.