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.
“How can parliament embrace digital democracy?” – A response
Summary Some thoughts on John Bercow’s speech covered in a Guardian article The article is here, and The Speaker’s speech (interestingly hosted on the Gov.UK rather than Parliament.uk site) is here. Definitions and concepts In the article’s short introduction, it goes straight into the concept of voting online without having even looked at the concepts […]
Monsters in Whitehall?
I had a look at the article by journalist, columnist and former Cameron speech-writer Ian Birrell in The Guardian. It’s titled The Civil Service: a monster in Whitehall. The sub-text seeks to prepare the ground for the politicisation of the civil service. The problem is that the article doesn’t make the case how politicising the civil […]
Not even human; disabled people are no more than names. It has to stop.
“Disabled people are being lost, forgotten. We need to act and at the very least show what the government is doing to our lives is unacceptable.” Becca explains how the Government’s welfare reforms rely on regarding disabled people just as names.
What now, Labour?
You can get some interesting results if you google “Labour effective opposition”. This is just a prologue to a longer post at some point (wouldn’t have googled it otherwise). I’m not happy with Labour’s performance in opposition, although I’d definitely rather have them in power than the Coalition. For now, I found one source that […]
The political class: ending the old politics requires a radical think of the role of political parties
In our continuing series on the political class, we suggest that the depth of the crisis of legitimacy being experienced by the mainstream political parties requires a radical rethinking of their role in contemporary politics.
Binaries
I’m not sure I buy into binaries. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who think there are only two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t. Here’s a binary for you: either there is an unprecedented crisis which can only be solved by austerity politics, or there isn’t. I don’t know which of […]
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.
How and why politicians are avoiding the ‘most difficult’ decisions
Summary Why “we have to take difficult decisions” doesn’t go anywhere near tackling the hardest questions of all I’ve reached that point where I now want to unpick this “difficult decisions” line to take. Politics and policy-making is full of decisions. Some of them are relatively straight forward, others are not – and for various […]
Labour’s pledge for minimum housing standards in private rented sector
Summary The devils will be in the delivery, which is why the policy detail must be spot on. Earlier today, Labour’s shadow housing minister Jack Dromey announced that a future Labour Government would implement the decent homes standard to the private rented sector. Which sounds great but is far easier said than done. Housing policy by its very […]
The political class: Why big ideas are a big waste of time and money
The political class and frontline practitioners not only have different ideas for improving public services - they also disagree fundamentally on what the problem is.
Accountability and responsiveness in the Senior Civil Service: a response
Summary My thoughts on the IPPR’s report It feels like I’ve got blogposts coming out of my ears at the moment. It’s that time of year where lots of organisations get their publications out before they head off for the summer. The IPPR’s report is here. Irrespective of its recommendations, this is an interesting report […]
Compulsory sex and relationship education in schools - Commons’ vote
Summary Why it’s not the end of the road for Lisa Nandy, Stella Creasy, Sarah Wollaston and friends There will be understandable disappointment from lots of people – myself included that Lisa Nandy MP was unsuccessful in persuading Parliament to add “New Clause 20″ to the Children and Families Bill at Report Stage in the […]
Frontline Friday 7th June 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 3rd June 2013. Let us know which posts we’ve missed and which other bloggers we should be following for next week’s list.
How MPs and Whitehall can use social media to shine a spotlight on lobbying
Summary With lobbying back in the spotlight following recent headlines, can Whitehall and Westminster use social media to bring much-needed transparency into policy making? One of the things that continues to disturb me is how the structures and processes within our political and state institutions are struggling to deal with the pressures that people’s use of […]
Political interference
This post was intended to be about the eternal conflict between punishment and rehabilitation using the example of how Community Service was transformed into Community Payback, via Community Punishment. However, as is often the case, I’ve been blown off course by events and although not entirely unconnected, that topic will have to wait for another […]
MPs get 30% pay rise, average worker gets 20% pay cut
“The Government is certainly Making Work Pay …just not for 99% of the population.” Scriptonite Daily urges action against widening inequality.
Advice from Uncle Ben
“With great power… comes great responsibility.” - misquote from Ben Parker, Marvel Comics. Background I’m a little late to the party, but I wanted to follow up the recent dispute about Michael Gove’s comments about history teaching. This was spurred by a twitter conversation with @oldandrewuk where it became clear that we disagreed vigorously about Gove’s approach. It seemed […]
Seven things all politicians should know about education
I find much of the contribution from politicians to the education debate in this country utterly pointless. So many political types simply do not realise how the system works or what is going on. Here are the key points I want politicians to take on board. 1) Education is an ideological battleground. There are fundamental differences […]
The political class: rise of the professional politician
This is the second in a series about the political class – who they are, what their background and experience is, and what qualifies them to shape and inform public policy. Here we look at the rise of the professional politician.