Category: Whitehall

Is Sir Humphrey Being Lined Up For a Fall?

Attacks on the Civil Service are nothing new. But when they come form a new government less than a year in office, something strange is happening.

Continue reading “Is Sir Humphrey Being Lined Up For a Fall?” →

Budget 2011: The Dog That Didn’t….

As I predicted, the 2011 Budget has stuck rigidly to the public spending plans set out in the Spending Review 2010, including spending on services and capital spending. Continue reading “Budget 2011: The Dog That Didn’t….” →

Japan – aiding recovery and reconstruction?

A colleague at MBS, Tudor Rickards, has launched an interesting initiative over at Leaders We Deserve focussed on the Fukushima problem.

But, as I indicated in my previous post, I still think the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami to the coastal communities in north-east Japan is by far the biggest problem. Estimates of the eventual death toll are already over 16,000 – my guess is it will go even higher than that. The destruction of housing, businesses and infrastructure is intense. Continue reading “Japan – aiding recovery and reconstruction?” →

Too Many Ministers

Today’s report from the Public Administration Select Committee (see here and Press Release reproduced below) makes complete sense. It argues that as Ministers reduce the size of the House of Commons (from 650 down to 600 MPs) and devolve power (allegedly) away from Whitehall, there should be less need for so many Ministers and their bag-carriers (Parliamentary Private Secretaries, the first rung on the ladder to a red Box). Continue reading “Too Many Ministers” →

Big Society versus Big State – unpicking a myth

The current debate in the UK about the  “Big Society” has been marred by some unfortunate mythology about to what extent the “Big Society” already exists, whether it is growing or shrinking, and whether it is counter-posed to the “Big State”.  The argument can be summed up as follows: Continue reading “Big Society versus Big State – unpicking a myth” →

Learning in Government – not: the decimation of knowledge

The New Labour government made a great song and dance about “evidence based policy”, which was generally observed more in rhetoric than in reality. But to be fair to them, their period in office did see a big increase in knowledge about “what works” and “what performs” in government, even if they didn’t always (often?) act on it. Continue reading “Learning in Government – not: the decimation of knowledge” →

Religion and Soft Power redux

I got the following question from a student in Turkey, about a post I made some time ago about religion and “soft power”, and specifically why Joseph Nye seemed to ignore it. My reply is below. Continue reading “Religion and Soft Power redux” →

Never mind measuring happiness, how about the misery index?

In the 1970s the US economist Arthur Okan came up with the concept to measure the social costs of simultaneous high inflation and unemployment, until then a relatively unknown phenomena. The idea is simple – add together the unemployment rate and the rate of price increases as a measure of how much ‘misery’ the people are suffering. Read the full story on False Economy blog

 

Cuts in Canada – the real story

I’m in Toronto as a guest of Social Planning Toronto – the real Big Society! I spoke at their annual conference yesterday, and at Ryerson university the day before. Continue reading “Cuts in Canada – the real story” →