The Birmingham Brief - intelligent thought on policy issues.
- Description
- The much-touted phrase 'from nanny to nudge' symbolises the Coalition Government's aspirations to find new ways to shape the habits and attitudes of good citizenship and to spread them more widely. Policy makers hope to change our expectations of what local and national government should provide, our ideas about who might provide them, and our commitment to changing our own and others' behaviours in all areas of our lives.
- Date:
- Friday 15th July 2011
- Categories:
- Research, Social Sciences
- Description
- With thousands of public sector workers striking this week and the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister both speaking at the Local Government Conference in Birmingham the future of public services has rarely seemed a more divisive or topical issue.
- Date:
- Thursday 14th July 2011
- Categories:
- Research, Social Sciences
- Description
- The Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, has recently announced the approval of the Initial Gate Business Case for the replacement for the Vanguard Class nuclear submarines. The contracts for this phase are likely to be in the region of £3bn. However, the Defence Secretary admitted that the total cost was likely to reach £25bn by the time the boats are built. Given that the initial estimates prepared in 2006 were in the region of £15–20bn, the sceptics around Whitehall, who are well used to Ministry of Defense (MoD) 'guesstimations', anticipate the final bill being closer to £38bn.
- Date:
- Tuesday 7th June 2011
- Categories:
- Arts and Law, Research
- Description
- About half of the UK population use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) during their lifetimes. Yet despite this, successive governments have appeared remarkably reluctant to engage with the regulation of these therapeutic practices, despite its stated commitment to responsive and appropriate regulation of the health sector.
- Date:
- Thursday 12th May 2011
- Categories:
- Medical and Dental Sciences, Research, Social Sciences