With the current need to cut costs across all central government departments, it is surprising to find that the opportunities to bid for the outsourcing of non-contentious back-office, white-collar...
In the recent Cisco research looking at broadband speeds across the globe, the UK was nineteenth – ‘our infrastructure is perfectly adequate at the moment’ was the headline
HELEN DISNEY | The colours of the next government will reveal themselves this conference season. The Conservatives might be ahead in the polls, but there is a battle still to come
RICHARD HUMPHRIES | If “there is no such thing as a free lunch”, as economists remind us, the same can’t be said for personal care if the Prime Minister’s pledge at the Labour Party Conference is to...
INSTITUTE FOR FISCAL STUDIES | Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour party conference gave more detail about an existing ambition of this government to provide free early education and childcare places...
TONY TRAVERS | Gordon Brown’s party conference speech has been overtaken by the Sun’s cruelly timed front page announcement that it was switching its support from Labour to the Conservatives
STEPHEN COURT | The CBI – which brands itself ‘the voice of business’ – is sounding more and more like a political party. Today it published 'New government in action' – its manifesto for whoever...
Polemic is good fun. More urgent – and more demanding – is clear thinking about risk, its mitigation through regulation, and how much local variance in risk the public and their representatives want
PETER WILBY | The public expects to have it all – low taxes and good services – and politicians are busy furthering this delusion. Will Labour tell the truth in Brighton?
KATE GREEN | If it ain’t broke… …don’t means test it. Proposals to end universal entitlements, such as child benefit, should be resisted by the government
MAX WIND-COWIE | David Walker’s response to Demos's call for greater freedom and trust for frontline services was not, entirely, unexpected. Whilst we do call for the Audit Commission to go, the...
MIKE THATCHER | Thinking the unthinkable, a sackable offence in New Labour’s heyday, has suddenly come back into fashion. With the public finances getting weaker by the month, the options on offer...
MAX WIND-COWIE | The six largest audit quangos cost the UK taxpayer £1bn a year to run and the biggest beast in this motley crew is the Audit Commission
CONOR RYAN | Schools Secretary Ed Balls raised eyebrows at the weekend with his Sunday Times interview where he offered up £2 billion in savings from his departmental budget. Meanwhile, a new CBI...
Sir Roger Singleton’s comparatively new Independent Safeguarding Authority has learned the hard way, during the past few weeks, that apart from walking barefoot
