Given the nation's obsession with eating and drinking, is it really feasible for councils to make any difference on public health issues such as obesity?
Scottish students might not be directly affected by the increase in tuition fees that their English counterparts face. But they have good reason to protest given the likely introduction of some form...
What a year it was. A new form of government, hitherto unseen reform of the public sector and a huge reduction programme. By this time next year, we will know how successful it all was
The coalition presents itself as a clean break from Labour’s command-and-control regime. But its fascination with Spending Reviews, business plans and milestones tells a different story
Bitter Irish resentment, anger and suspicion over the bailout process and yesterday's austerity budget may be just the beginning of the coming political backlash in Europe
Student finance issues have gained all the attention, but the coalition is really focused on the effective privatisation of universities and forcing financially-based competition on them
Mervyn King's indiscretions, reported on Wikileaks, will not bring him down. But the governor might be found out by the inflation that follows from the Bank of England's policy of monetary expansion
In a period where public bodies are likely to be pressurised into taking imprudent decisions for short-term budgetary concerns, the role of the external auditor will be key
The decision to publish the Localism Bill on the same day as the local authority grant settlement could be seen as a clever piece of joined-up government or cynical manipulation depending on your...
The government's plan to introduce an official wellbeing or happiness measure is a great opportunity to embed localism. A 'wealth' index would give us all the chance to understand how our places are...
The Welsh Assembly Government has played a blinder in deciding not to raise tuition fees. It shows that Welsh politicians are more in touch with their constituents than their English counterparts
The move to install publicly-elected police commissioners is in full swing - but against a backdrop of widespread cuts and with estimates that the latest plans will cost £130m in the first year alone...
David Cameron has launched a quest to find a measure of wellbeing that can be used as an indicator of our national performance - and be used as a measure of the success of government policy. But...
While beleaguered public sector organisations will be keen to show they can tackle the problem, businesses and banks are sure to bare their teeth at the hint of government action
Over the past few years Scotland has seen a number of proposals to change its local taxation system, from the ill-fated community charge in the late 1980s to the most recent but equally doomed...
The UK has a chronic problem in that its public sector is significantly larger than optimal, pay is much higher than in the private sector and productivity performance is disappointing
The Office for Budget Responsibility's autumn economic forecast is an admirably clear and detailed document. But its estimates may be overly optimistic on output, employment growth and borrowing
Yesterday the Irish government finalised a rescue deal for the country's beleaguered banks worth 85 billion euros. With all such large financial decisions, the initial test of success was seen to be...
The coalition's ideological opposition to any ringfenced funding has come seriously unstuck. They just have to admit there are occasions when such ringfenced funding is needed and desirable.
Those of us who benefited from a heavily subsidised higher education system in the 1960s and 1970s could make a contribution to 'generational equality'. Spreading such a tax over a larger population...
The Local Growth White Paper talks a good talk, but a closer examination reveals that the outcome of this economic rebalancing act could end up topsy-turvy.
When businesses face financial losses, they look at ways of bringing in income as well as cutting costs. But in local government, we have tended to focus only on reducing costs
