The Charity Comission, which is meant to have the kind mission of assisting good causes, has gone a bit Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde all of a sudden. Its new, aggressive drive against independent schools threatens to make private education more elitist and place an unsustainable burden on the state education... Read more...
Today’s Times carries a must-read account of the difficulty that can be encountered when pursuing Freedom of Information (FoI) requests. Martin Sixsmith, a former senior Civil Servant, was ousted from Whitehall after being blamed for the misbehaviour of Stephen Byers and his spin doctor. Keen to find out who had... Read more...
Many thanks to the activists and members of the public who supported the WMTPA in Birmingham on Saturday! Luckily the weather held out just long enough for us to collect some signatures and hand out many leaflets to residents, visitors and shoppers from our pitch in Victoria Square! Read more...
City AM reported this morning that McDonalds is joining the growing ranks of firms leaving the country. They are relocating their European headquarters to Geneva from Finchley in North London. As the newspaper shows in a graphic, they join WPP Group plc, Henderson Global Investors and Shire that have left for... Read more...
"Our aim is to spend more on what works, and end funding for what doesn't." The Conservative party's International Development green paper has a lot to commend it (to read in full, click here). An acknowledgement that economic growth is vital to broader social improvement is married to an appreciation... Read more...
The business of Government, just like any other, often takes people out of the office. Whether for a meeting or an event, civil servants and ministers frequently have to travel, and sometimes a taxi or chauffeured car is the most appropriate way. But in 2008, 19 (of the 20) Government... Read more...
Today the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority have stated their intention to introduce a new ‘Use of Mathematics’ A-Level by September 2011. In response to this, dozens of academics have signed a petition denouncing this new A-level and it seems they are not alone in their objections. Educators for Reform, a... Read more...
Walsall Council will look to the private sector for guidance after the number of sick days taken by employees rises 13,000 on last year, despite the fact they have fewer staff on payroll. The Express & Star revealed that staff at the authority took 169,493 days off between them... Read more...
More evidence has emerged today of the popularity of cuts in the level of public spending, from the most unlikely source: Harriet Harman. New research by Guido Fawkes suggests that the public are not only enthusiastic for tax cuts, they are actively in favour of lower spending. Guido ran... Read more...
It’s unlikely many are shocked by today’s news that the Arts Council have granted The Public gallery in West Bromwich the £3million it all but promised, “subject to business plans”, as a sort of sorry when it ‘reluctantly’ withdrew from bankrolling the project in January this year. Now the... Read more...
Trevor Phillips, the Chairman of the government’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, was yesterday in the dock charged with discrimination by a member of his own staff. Irish-born Brid Johal (an aide to the aide of Phillips) accused the Chairman of over-looking her for promotion as a result of her... Read more...
Yesterday I was in Bath for a meeting of the Bath and North East Somerset council Development Control Committee. We have been campaigning with local residents and supporters from ‘Response2Route’ and Save Bathampton Meadows against council plans for the Bath Rapid Transit Scheme. This scheme involves the creation... Read more...
Jim Knight, Employment Minister, has acknowledged in written answers that the government spent nearly £170,000 of taxpayers’ money, between November 2008 and May 2009, on sending out fake job applications to see if employers discriminated against foreign-sounding names. Not only is this a substantial sum for a research project,... Read more...
A report in this morning’s Telegraph outlines Ed Balls’ plans to recruit 200 social workers, aiming for specifically for teachers and lawyers to improve the profession in the wake of several scandals surrounding the deaths of children under the watch of Councils. The review in to the Baby P case... Read more...
There are over 500 jobs in government this week, as you can see from the bar on the right. Scanning the jobs that councils, quangos and other government departments advertise for has brought us some gems. The Street Football Coordinator in Moray and the blank advert to publicise a climate change... Read more...
It's day two of Sir Hugh Orde's tenure as head of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and already he's been causing quite a stir. Whilst he seems to have some good ideas, he has absolutely the wrong approach to getting them implemented. To give a bit of... Read more...
Some of you may remember our involvement with the Independent Review Panel, set up by the Welsh Assembly, which was tasked with looking into AMs' expenses, headed by Sir Roger Jones. The review was established last summer, to deliver "a system of financial support fro Assembly Members that is fair and transparent... Read more...
Nonsense to end all nonsense at Stoke on Trent City Council, as residents at council flats in the city will now be convening to discuss the ‘door mat’ ban with elected members. It was reported a couple of weeks ago that the council had decided to ban door mats... Read more...
As debate over public spending descends into the absurd (with 0% spending rises and ministerial bullying of journalists), its easy to forget that behind all the bluster there are some real policy debates going on. Perhaps the most significant of these debates concerns education, and more specifically, the future of... Read more...
According to This is Somerset, Councillors in North Somerset have generously voted to increase their own allowances by 30%; how thoughtful of them. The rest of the country is suffering through a severe recession, worried about keeping their jobs, and these people are giving themselves increases at their constituent’s expense.... Read more...
There was a time when wagging off school and taking sickies here, there and everywhere was seen as poor form, now actually going to school everyday in the way you’re supposed to is being viewed as an achievement and richly rewarded…by the taxpayer. (BBC News) Kids at Kingstone High... Read more...
Smokers in Dundee are now being paid to give up cigarettes as part of a NHS scheme. Quitters now receive £12.50 towards their groceries each week in order to give them the encouragement they need.The taxpayer funded crusade against smokers continues. Don’t smokers already have enough incentive to quit? ... Read more...
The OECD has just published its latest Economic Survey of the United Kingdom. And it's a pretty damning verdict on 12 years of Labour government.To start with, the OECD reminds us exactly where Mr Brown's "economic miracle" came from - a huge government spending splurge, combined with easy credit.On government... Read more...
However hard one trawls the web, it's hard to find an independent analysis of RDAs that gives them a really good review. Journals dedicated to regional issues - a natural home for pro-RDA opinion one might think - struggle to present a case beyond "they're better than nothing". Most studies... Read more...