A new Prime Minister takes over towards the end of a long period of his party being in power. He replaces a charismatic and controversial, but highly successful in electoral terms, predecessor. His government is becoming increasingly unpopular and an election is looming. What new policy wheeze can he come up with on public services to capture the public imagination? How about promising the public that public services will be made to set out exactly what standards of service they will offer and then giving the public rights to demand these standards are met? Continue reading “‘Building Britain’s Future’ or Forward to the Past?”
Category: Whitehall
PASC on Good Government
The Public Administration Select Committee today publishes its report (and evidence sessions) on Good Government.
I have reproduced the main recommendations below, their analysis is well worth reading.
Especially pleasing is that they have accepted my proposal (see section 5 of the Report) that the remit of the National Audit Office be expanded to something more like that of the General Accountability Office in the USA – and specifically it takes on a role assessing the performance of government Ministries and departments. Continue reading “PASC on Good Government”
Democracy Demands: Show Us The Money!
In the film Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding Jr. famously demands of his Agent Maguire (Tom Cruise) that he “show me the money”. The message (in context) is simple – no amount of smooth talking from his Agent is good enough – Gooding’s character wants to see the actual money. This is a good lesson to apply to the latest “debate” (I use the word loosely) over the future of public spending. Continue reading “Democracy Demands: Show Us The Money!”
POLICY-MAKING CAPABILITY IN UK GOVERNMENT – A CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY
Probably the most important role of Whitehall departments is giving policy advice to Ministers. It is therefore curious that policy-making did not figure directly in the Capability Reviews that central government departments have been going through in the past few years. Continue reading “POLICY-MAKING CAPABILITY IN UK GOVERNMENT – A CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY”
Anne Widdecombe takes my advice?
I think I was the first person to suggest Anne Widdecombe for Speaker (see on this blog) so I’m glad to see she’s taken the hint. (Although I doubt I really had anything to do with it).
Her idea of an interim Speaker pending the election of a “post-expenses row” House of Commons also makes a lot of sense.
Breakfast with Brown: What Should The Government Do?
After attending the Prime Ministers breakfast seminar in No. 10 on the future of public services my overwhelming feeling was that the government is still in thrall to the tyranny of the new. An underlying theme was that they needed something ‘new’ to offer. Continue reading “Breakfast with Brown: What Should The Government Do?”
Taking Dave Seriously
David Cameron’s rhetoric on reforming Westminster sounds great, but a dissection of his policies reveals a lack of substance. Instead of being an enemy of democracy, bureaucracy remains an essential friend. See Public Finance for the rest…
66.6 – The Real Nature of the Beast
Three hundred and sixty-six Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem MPs claimed between £20,000 and £23,083 (the maximum) in Additional Costs Allowances (ACA) last year which just happens to work out at 66.6 (recurring) percent of MPs from the 3 main parties. Continue reading “66.6 – The Real Nature of the Beast”
Failing to learn – or learning to fail?
Kieran Walshe
The question more public sector organisations should be asking themselves is: “How can we learn to get better?” Knowledge is very freely shared in the sector, with lots of encouragement to learn from good practice and few proprietorial or competitive barriers, but the way public bodies take in and learn from that information isn’t always effective enough to help them be successful – and can even lead them into failure. for full story see The Guardian, Wednesday 20 May 2009
Parliament: never waste a good crisis
Never waste a good crisis – never was this more true than in the current Parliamentary calamity.
The Conservatives have been quick to advance an agenda for reforming Parliament itself that is deeply worrying. Continue reading “Parliament: never waste a good crisis”
Colin Talbot - my blog 