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.
Incognito
“I could also obviously deny I am a Police Officer or tell people who doubt me that they’re correct but then that would mean I would struggle to engage or contribute freely with Police related discussions or debates and it would soon become apparent that I was lying, so for now, I remain anonymous.” Snapper explains why he blogs and tweets incognito.
Shadow politics: Three reasons why public services feel increasingly less public
In the shadow politics, public services feel increasingly less public - from the development of policy to the delivery and regulation of services - in a way that may come back to haunt the political class itself.
Clinical commissioning groups… fancy doing a survey?
I have recently been doing the monumental task of looking through each of the 211 new clinical commissioning groups (these replaced Primary Care Trusts) websites. Clinical Commissioning Groups are a flagship health policy of the Coalition, giving spending control of 60% of the NHS budget to groups of practitioners – notably General Practitioners or GPs. […]
Shadow politics: How outsourcing and privatisation have got their teeth into public services
In the shadow politics, some policies - such as outsourcing and privatisation - are beyond the need for evidence. And once they sink their teeth in, they don’t let go.
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.
Frontline Friday 19th July 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 15th July 2013 - from male mental health to the NHS, welfare reforms to payment by results.
You shall never speak of this
The revelations published by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism at the weekend are old news to many of us within our individual forces, but this latest article brings the problems caused by rapidly diminishing officer numbers on a national level into sharp focus. In recent years there has been a huge shift from crime fighting […]
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.
The PSHE Review: Respondents and homophobic bullying in the report
In March 2013 the DfE published the outcomes of the latest PSHE review (DfE 2013). The publication of this review took over 16 months to complete from the close of the consultation process in November 2011. Unfortunately the review was problematic in the way that it did not weight responses correctly so the review made […]
Privacy: the more we know, the more we care…
To some people, the PRISM revelations have been deeply shocking. The idea that the authorities could be spying on pretty much all our activities on the internet was something that they had never really believed – indeed, they had thought that those of us who had been going on about this kind of thing were, […]
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 […]
Why a statutory register of lobbyists alone won’t solve the problem
Summary Further thoughts following the Sunday Times’ sting on Tim Yeo MP – looking at which lobbyists might not be covered by such a register Another weekend, another lobbying sting about what a politician might or might not do. This post follows on from my previous post about lobbying on how social media can be used to […]
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 […]
Why propriety matters
Summary Do I really have to spell it out? Prospects of the outsourcing of justice functions seem to say so. It seems like my last blogpost Are there some moral lines that outsourcing of public services should not cross? may not have gotten through. So I’ll make it clear: Privatising the courts is a bad […]
Are there some moral lines that outsourcing of public services should not cross?
Summary Should all public services and state functions be open for outsourcing or are there some lines that should not be crossed? The difference with this blogpost compared to others I’ve covered in public policy is that it looks at an issue through the prism of principle and disposition, rather than through a pure technocratic […]
The political class: senior civil servants
In the fourth of our posts on the political class we investigate senior civil servants. This is part of series examining the political class – who they are, what their background and experience is, and what qualifies them to shape and inform public policy.
Closing the enquiry centres: the final response
Don’t forget that today is the last day to make your feelings known about the proposal to close HMRC’s face to face enquiry centres. Here’s what I sent: This is an individual response and is also published online, with commentary, on my blog http://tiintax.com. There were four earlier blog posts on this issue which you might […]
#NHSEngage - Why I use social media
It’s great to see Dean Royles and NHS Employers highlighting the benefits of social media use in the NHS. Social media enables conversations, crosses organisational boundaries with ease, and spreads learning and innovation quickly and effectively. I have written before about why I use it. For me it is about driving openness and transparency in […]