Category: Whitehall

Is the Era of Single Party Rule Over?

The BBC’s Nick Robinson has it almost right when he says there are two ways of judging these elections – through the prism of the last three decades of British politics with its long-lived single party governments (Tories 1979-97; Labour 97-2010) or through the prism of 1970s one-term Governments. In the 1979-2010 period incumbent governments suffered mid-term slumps only to recover and win. In the 70s they suffered mid-term slumps and went on to lose at the next election. Continue reading “Is the Era of Single Party Rule Over?” →

Can Mervyn King do the math? Apparently not……might explain a lot?

I heard yet again today someone using the Queen’s Jubilee Gambit to explain that next quarter (Q2 2012) may see even more sluggish growth in the economy or even that wonder “negative growth”. This is based on comments made by the Governor of the Bank of England a few weeks ago: Continue reading “Can Mervyn King do the math? Apparently not……might explain a lot?” →

Have Social Sciences “Wasted a Good Crisis”?

Aditya Chakrabortty has suggested (in a Guardian column) that British “publicly funded” social scientists have failed to step into the breach as neo-classical economic orthodoxy so spectacularly failed over the 2007-2009 financial crisis and it’s on-going consequences.

Read my analysis over on my new ‘Homo Janus’ blog here.

Doubling Dip: is it the government’s fault?

So, Britain is officially in a ”double-dip” recession, just. In reality this is both more and less serious than it sounds. It is more serious because we are still a good 4% of GDP lower than we were at the start of the financial crisis in 2007. And that is probably between 10% or more below where we would have been if not for the banking crisis. Continue reading “Doubling Dip: is it the government’s fault?” →

The Class Ceiling – Posh Boys (and Girls) Still Rule OK

When Tory MP Nadine Dorries described her Prime Minister and Chancellor as ”two arrogant posh boys” it prompted me to start thinking about my own experiences of class in British society over the past half century.

My conclusion – there is, still, a ”class ceiling” in British society. True, it is weaker than it once was but it still exists, especially in some of our major institutions. Continue reading “The Class Ceiling – Posh Boys (and Girls) Still Rule OK” →

There is no such thing as a free lunch, unless you’re running a state funded academies trust that is. In which case you can free everything.

I have been predicting for ages that some of the current (and previous) Government’s reforms like NHS Foundation Trusts, Academies and ‘Free Schools’, and the soon to be Community Commissioning Groups, will undermine financial control and audit in these publicly funded agencies.

In June 2010, for example, I wrote that “Many of the much derided ‘bureaucratic controls’, now so often lambasted, grew up in the first place to prevent corruption and abuse.” Ripping them up was bound to be hazardous, and so it is proving. Continue reading “There is no such thing as a free lunch, unless you’re running a state funded academies trust that is. In which case you can free everything.” →

Jeremy Hunt (DCMS) debacle raises again the issue of Civil Service Reform

This week saw an extraordinary outburst from the most recently retired Head of the Civil Service, Lord Gus O’Donnell. He said, on the BBC, “”When governments go through difficult patches you are looking for who you can blame. The issue comes up of ‘well, let’s try and blame the Civil Service’. It does not usually work and I don’t think it will work this time either.”

Now I am not one of those who would blame the Government’s current ills on the Civil Service, or at any rate not entirely. Most of what has happened to them has been because of crass and rushed policy-making on the hoof, without proper thought and analysis. Certainly sometimes Civil Servants have failed to say “no, Minister” when they should have, but Ministers have only themselves to blame when things go wrong. Ministers who allow official or unofficial advisers to run amok, as in Defence or now DCMS, can hardly blame the Civil Service for not stopping them (even if the CS should have).

But that does not exonerate the Civil Service. I have been saying for years that our supposedly “Rolls Royce” Civil Service has deep flaws in its institutional make-up. Continue reading “Jeremy Hunt (DCMS) debacle raises again the issue of Civil Service Reform” →

Policy@Manchester

One of the things that distinguishes top Universities around the world is that, certainly in democracies, they are usually power-houses of public policy ideas.

True, in recent years in some countries Universities have been squeezed out by (sometimes very well funded) Think Tanks and governments that regarded ‘liberal’ or ‘leftie’ academics as more of a problem than a help (especially in the UK and USA). Of course, there are plenty of right-wing academics, so this was always a false view, but it did squeeze some University-based ideas out of the policy communities. Continue reading “Policy@Manchester” →

Equality Trust researcher opening

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The Equality Trust and the University of York are looking for a Researcher to take a leading role in an exciting new project: Discussing Inequality – materials for the classroom and beyond. Continue reading “Equality Trust researcher opening” →