Five policies to fix the political class
The main political parties have all been jostling to respond to the ‘cost of living crisis’. But they’ve all failed to respond to the underlying issue - that in the eyes of voters, the political class lives on another planet. Here are five proposals that might help.
Frontline Friday 26th July 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 22nd July 2013 - from welfare reform to the Work Capability Assessment, police powers to the ‘war on porn’.
The Parliamentary Hypocritical Oath
“…there is in fact very little in place to “police” MP’s in the same way all other sections of the public sector are “policed”. …They are “monitored” by a group of their peers with not a single impartial, independent person amongst them.” Snapper explains why it’s one rule for MPs, and another for those who work in the public sector.
Take the red pill
“Take the red pill. Get real. You can’t have a pay rise till you up your game.” Wendy Bradley argues that as public servants, MPs need to prove their worth to receive a pay rise - and wonders what would be in their performance objectives.
Frontline Friday 24th May 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 20th May 2013. Let us know which posts we’ve missed and which other bloggers we should be following for next week’s list.
Government is not the same thing as a business, and should never be run like it is one
The word ‘business’ conjures up different meanings for different people, depending on their background and of course what exposure they may have had to its use or application. Most will agree that its use as a term suggests enterprise and methods of working which would sit snugly within a commercial environment. But should this word […]
Passion is lacking in politics because the political class is too professionalised
In our previous post we made the simple point that many of today’s politicians don’t look like us. Another reason we feel so disconnected from our politicians is that they seem so detached themselves, and because they express little feeling or passion. The current political class is increasingly technocratic because politics is increasingly a profession rather than […]
Politicians don’t look like the rest of us – why should we expect their policies to?
Andrew Mitchell was eventually forced to resign from the Cabinet on Friday for allegedly calling a police officer a ‘pleb’. Like the best political scandals, plebgate has revolved around a politician telling the truth, because compared to the Cabinet we are all commoners. It doesn’t matter what Mitchell actually said – the real issue in […]