MIKE THATCHER | Poor old Ed Balls. Just when most MPs are chucking their order papers in the air, as they head off for the long summer recess, the schools secretary is having to stay behind to...
HELEN DISNEY | Welfare-to-work or ‘workfare’ was once a novel concept in the UK. Just a decade ago, in the heyday of New Labour, the idea of using private firms to encourage back into work people...
MIKE THATCHER | It used to be glamorous foreign trips to estates and villas owned by the likes of Cliff Richard, Robin Gibb and Silvio Berlusconi. Now it’s a domestic break sampling the delights of...
MELISSA BENN | For those with any remaining doubts about Barack Obama‘s formidable personal appeal, I direct them to the YouTube clip ’Barack Obama on Ellen’
MIKE THATCHER | Power to the people has long been a rallying cry for politicians both radical and conservative. The latest to embrace this somewhat vague concept is our own communities secretary,...
PETER RIDDELL | The Conservatives are starting to prepare for government. There are close parallels with New Labour’s position in the mid-1990s: a largely inexperienced team, after a long period in...
VICTORIA MACDONALD | It has long been a source of frustration for politicians that if you ask a member of the public what they think of the National Health Service they will grumble and moan and...
MIKE THATCHER | Like buses, NHS reforms tend to come in fits and starts. We haven’t had any for a while, but this week – to coincide with the NHS birthday bash – three came along at once.
MIKE THATCHER | What do ministers think local government is really for? As delegates gather in Bournemouth for the Local Government Association’s annual conference next week, they might well ask...
JACKIE ASHLEY | In an ideal world, what are the three words that should apply to local government? Well, ‘trusted’, ‘accountable’ and ‘popular’ wouldn’t be a bad place to start.
PHILIP JOHNSTONE | How often have we read stories over the past ten years or so that promised populist measures in the field of criminal justice, garnered a few favourable headlines for their...
MIKE THATCHER | One irony from the current torrid time faced by Gordon Brown is that the issue that was once his greatest strength – the economy – is what has laid him low.
MIKE THATCHER | It’s national volunteers’ week. Which might explain why so many politicians have been out and about, lavishing praise on the country’s Cinderella services and unsung heroines and...
MIKE THATCHER | The trouble with U-turns is that they are rarely one-offs. Ministers who correct one ‘mistake’ inevitably find themselves swamped with demands to reverse a wide range of...
ROBERT SHRIMSLEY | The early impressions were positive. The first date went well and even the day trip to Crewe was surprisingly jolly. But now David Cameron is on his second date with the voters...
MIKE THATCHER | If Hazel Blears has her way, Utopia is just around the corner. Apathy will be banished, every citizen will be an active citizen and people will work together for the greater good.
MIKE THATCHER | In the glory days of New Labour, anything seemed possible – even, dare we say it, introducing higher taxes to pay for better public services.
NIALL DICKSON | Just as the NHS celebrates its sixtieth birthday, health minister Lord Darzi will publish his long-awaited review — described at its launch by Health Secretary Alan Johnson as a ‘...
