VICTORIA MACDONALD | It’s been a bad week for women in politics. Within the space of a few days, Jacqui Smith and Hazel Blears have resigned from the Cabinet
IAIN MACWHIRTER l When it comes to expenses, members of the Scottish Parliament are basking in a virtuous glow. Maybe that’s because, unlike their Westminster counterparts, they have to disclose...
COLIN TALBOT l David Cameron’s rhetoric on reforming Westminster sounds great, but a dissection of his policies reveals a lack of substance. Instead of being an enemy of democracy, bureaucracy...
MIKE THATCHER | It was unfortunate timing, to say the least. The decision by the communities and local government secretary to resign one day ahead of the council and European elections breached...
CHRIS LESLIE l Joined-up working is crucial if councils are to improve services. This is particularly true for the local environment, where better use of technology and improved management can...
JOHN BERRIMAN l Public sector finance directors face competing demands and ever-tighter budgets. They will need to improve leadership skills, address culture change and offer more insight into...
JUDY HIRST | Amid all the sturm und drang over cleaning up politics, and ahead of the June 4 local and European elections, politicians are competing to demonstrate their power-to-the-people...
DAVID LIPSEY | Some twenty years ago, David Owen’s Social Democratic Party was wound up after the party finished behind the Monster Raving Loony Party in a by-election.
JOHN DUNFORD l School league tables are out of fashion, to be replaced by scorecards that will judge schools on more balanced and holistic criteria. But the design will need to be carefully thought...
STUART ETHERINGTON l Charities must adapt to survive in these turbulent economic times. They need better financial systems and should consider diversifying their income streams and collaborating...
PETER HETHERINGTON | Earlier this year, as the furore over parliamentary expenses was gaining momentum, I visited one of a diminishing number of MPs who can still claim a working-class background.
Your news story, ‘Bill for Manchester waste PFI scheme hits £4.7bn’, states that the ‘rise (in cost) was caused mainly by the increased cost of finance and greater transfer of risk to the contractor’
JOHN THORNTON l The prime minister has had some bad experiences of using the internet recently. But websites such as Twitter and YouTube could be essential for governments in communicating with the...
MARIA DONOGHUE-MILLS l Community problems usually require local answers. But good practice is rarely passed on. However, the Can Do programme aims to share valuable knowledge through a network of...
GABRIELLE PRESTON l Despite government rhetoric about reducing poverty and inequalities – and the slew of policies and laws to achieve this – the poorest people in the UK are being penalised and...
MIKE THATCHER | Who could argue with Stephen Fry, the erudite actor, writer and presenter, in his dismissal of the MPs’ expenses furore as simply ‘not that important’? Well, pretty much the rest of...
PETER RIDDELL | Who would be an elected politician? The mood at Westminster among MPs is one of despair and — at least among the shrewder ones — of shame.
ANDREW COLLINGE l Local authorities have a pivotal part to play in easing unemployment during the recession. Many of the initiatives in the Budget will rely on local projects and councils cannot...
JUDY HIRST | Regulators are in a strange place right now. With all parties engaged in a Dutch auction over the future size of the public sector, quangos are easy targets for spending cuts.
CAREY OPPENHEIM | Schools closed, patients confined, face masks dished out, antivirals prescribed and the chief medical officer on primetime television.
IAIN MACWHIRTER | Scotland’s large public sector has cushioned it from the worst effects of the recession so far. But faced with a big grant cut next year, it will need to be allowed to raise taxes...
MIKE THATCHER | Something has to give. With the public finances in disarray, a number of ‘big-ticket’ public projects face cancellation whoever wins the next general election.
MELISSA BENN | It was not the stuff of banner headlines. Potentially dodgy economic dossiers took that particular crown. But Alistair Darling’s Budget day announcement of 50,000 new traineeships in...
