Search Results for: devo

Ethnic inequalities in health – policy paralysis and the need to be ambitious

By James Nazroo Filed Under: All posts, Ethnicity, Featured Posted: February 5, 2015

How and why does policy continue to fail to address inequalities in health? asks Professor James Nazroo. A recent report on inequalities in health, commissioned by the British Academy, brought together responses to the question, “What one policy could make a difference if implemented at a local level?” The context was, of course, local government, […]

‘Neither Unified, Nor Uniform – So What Civil Service for the Twenty-First Century?

By Francesca Gains and Dave Richards Filed Under: All posts, Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 26, 2015

In the final part of our special series on the Civil Service, Francesca Gains and Dave Richards sum up the debate and assess the future of the service during a period of great change. The most striking theme to emerge from the Policy@Manchester series of Civil Service ‘stocking-taking’ blogs by Martin Stanley and Colin Talbot […]

Civil Service Accountability to the Public part II

By Martin Stanley Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 19, 2015

In the second of three blogs Martin Stanley examines whether senior officials should be more accountable – especially to MPs – for the advice that they give to Ministers. This is the fourth post in our series on the Civil Service. How would officials react to greater public scrutiny? Most of them, I suspect, would […]

Policing the North

By Michael Dawson Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted: January 8, 2015

Last month Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe called for fewer police forces in the UK as cuts in public spending change the way that out services have to operate . Here Michael Dawson, of devolution campaign group Campaign for the North says the region should have a single police force; There are many merits to Bernard Hogan-Howe’s recent […]

Public policy and the hegemony of happiness

By Annie Austin Filed Under: Featured Posted: January 7, 2015

Policy fetishism about GDP is being replaced by an unthinking devotion to simplistic happiness indicators, warns Annie Austin. “In a decade’s time we’re going to be using happiness as the sole basis for judging the impact of public policy.” So stated Paul Dolan recently in the opening sequence of ITV’s Tonight programme, entitled ‘Is Britain […]

Nuclear energy and society

By Andrew Sherry Filed Under: Featured, Science and Technology Posted: December 8, 2014

Faced by the challenge of energy security, the UK nuclear industry is recognising the need to engage with society on the case for nuclear power. Professor Andrew Sherry explains. Many areas of science and engineering are difficult to discuss with the public. This is particularly true where views are entrenched and polarised. Nuclear energy […]

Questions remain over Northern future

By Michael Dawson Filed Under: Featured Posted: December 4, 2014

George Osborne announced additional funding for science and culture in the North in his autumn statement, but Michael Dawson of Campaign for the North, a political movement aiming for devo max for the region, says he didn’t go far enough. In the wake of the Autumn Statement, serious questions still need to be answered surrounding […]

After the ‘No’: Constitutional Reform must not be by the Elites for the Elites

By Martin Smith, Sandra León and Dave Richards Filed Under: All posts Posted: September 24, 2014

The constitutional debate unleashed by the Scottish Independence Referendum has revealed many of the contradictions and problems of the British political system. The result effectively undermines the notion of the Westminster model and the underlying principle of Parliamentary (in realty Executive) Sovereignty. The Westminster model is based on an idea of indivisible sovereignty, accompanied by […]

After the ‘No’: Dynamics of Scottish Nationalism?

By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts Posted: September 19, 2014

This is the first of what will hopefully be a series of short posts examining various constitutional, policy and political consequences of the ‘No’ vote in the Scottish referendum. Where will the SNP go now? They can hardly go for “business as usual” approach, now independence is off the agenda for an unspecified period. There are […]

All Public Services are Local: why we need smaller, and bigger, local government (in England)

By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted: September 12, 2014

Here’s a simple question: why does the UK have a single agency, HM Revenue and Customs, to collect most taxes? This idea is so embedded in the UK political psyche that it is never, ever, questioned. But there are clear examples of alternatives that work perfectly well. In Denmark, for example, local government collects most […]