Category: Whitehall

Is the Future Scary?

We took my 5 year-old son to see a ‘Horrid Henry’ show after Christmas. At one point in the production Horrid Henry is trying to convince his little brother Peter Perfect that he’s been to the future. “What’s the future like?” asks Peter. As Henry appears stumped for an answer, my son shouts out “scary” and gets one of the best laughs of the show. (I’m not sure whether to be proud or hide under the seat). Continue reading “Is the Future Scary?” →

HELP!

No, not the Beetles hit, but the flavour of many of the meetings I’ve been attending in recent weeks and will be in the next few weeks.

First was a Guardian ‘roundtable’; this was followed by evidence I was asked to give to the Northern Ireland Assembly Finance Committee; another roundtable, this time organised by Public Finance magazine, last week; this week it is the Public Administration Select Committee in Westminster; and the following week it’s a Demos/PwC seminar. Continue reading “HELP!” →

OneTotalLocalPlace

In the never-ending, and now more important than ever, effort to do more-with-less, a new initiative has come out of Whitehall: OneTotalLocalPlace.

There have been quite a number of initiatives that have been focussed on getting the best value for money our of local spending. These have included:

– Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) – these are meant to focus the efforts of all local service providers

– Local Area Agreements (LAAs) – these are like LSPs, but with money

– Comprehensive Area Assessments, or as they are now known, OnePlace – these are run by the Audit Commission and are supposed to measure results across a local area.

– Total Place – this is a new ambitious programme run by Treasury and DCLG to examine spending patterns across an area and see if the money can be better allocated, or cut, whilst producing the same or better results.

In an effort to join all this up, the Government has now announced OneTotalLocalPlace (or OTLP).

OTLP will be a powerful new organisation with substantial powers over local budgets, priorities and responsibility for determining and achieving outcomes. It will coordinate and allocate resources for maximum impact. Priorities will be fixed by a revolutionary new system, involving directly elected representatives of local communities. Some have suggested an alternative, simpler name: Local Government.

Balls takes his ball away

Gordon Brown put reinforcing parliamentary accountability at the heart of his premiership. One major change was to involve parliament in the appointment of senior public officials. Continue reading “Balls takes his ball away” →

MPs Expenses – the missing mortgage money issue

So – MPs expenses are back, but this time with a slightly more complex plot.

Former civil servant Sir Thomas Legg has been accused of retrospective re-writing of the rules in calling on MPs to repay anything above certain set limits for things like cleaning their second homes. Continue reading “MPs Expenses – the missing mortgage money issue” →

PS – Eye Witness: Gordon’s seemed fine to me

I sat next to Gordon Brown at the Chequers seminar (Sat 10/10/09) as he he took copious notes – he was clearly having no problem writing, so I don’t know what all the fuss is over his eyesight?

Chequers, mate?

I almost didn’t get to Chequers (the Prime Ministers country residence) on Saturday for a seminar on “Equality, Fairness and Responsibility in the Post-Crisis Society” convened by the PM and chaired by Ed Miliband. Continue reading “Chequers, mate?” →

Recessions Come and Go

Don’t dismantle the public domain because of this latest one…. see my article in today’s Guardian.

See also my brief comment on George Osborne’s ‘cull’ of Whitehall in todays Financial Times.

Britain’s Emissions Exported says Chief Scientist – really?

A news story today apparently sent some in Whitehall into a bit of a tail spin – according to the BBC:

Professor David MacKay told the BBC that reductions in carbon dioxide emissions since 1990 are “an illusion”. “Our energy footprint has decreased over the last few decades and that’s largely because we’ve exported our industry,” he said. Continue reading “Britain’s Emissions Exported says Chief Scientist – really?” →