Recent blog posts from around the School

Description: There's an album track by the heavy metal band, Skyclad, inspired by the most infamous civil service email ever – the 'good day to bury bad news' message by Jo Moore, special adviser to Local Government Minister, Stephen Byers, at 2.55 p.m. on September 11th 2001, an hour after al-Qaeda terrorists crashed their hijacked jets into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. I'm no metalhead anyway, but there are two things about the track that especially grate. Written by Chris Game
Date:: Monday 14th January 2013

Description: By 1830 the East India Company had grown in size and influence to be a government in all but name. It had control over a population that was at the time ten times greater than that covered by the British Crown and amounted in economic terms to over one third of the then British economy. The power of the company was such that it has led to a deep seated suspicion of the profit motive in the private sector and individuals that has remained in national and local government ever since – whichever political party has been in control. Written by Ian Briggs
Date:: Wednesday 9th January 2013

Description: One thing about the BBC that really irritates me - up there with its inane Diamond Jubilee reporting, expensively inept management, and the Today programme's 'Thought for the Day' – is its pathetic practice of basing programmes on what it claims are new, exclusively revealed and/or cunningly researched data, when in fact they are nothing of the kind. Written by Chris Game
Date:: Monday 7th January 2013

Description: Earlier this month, a group from the Birmingham Social Inclusion Process (People Key Line of Inquiry) held a one day workshop with representatives from across the voluntary and community sectors in the city, to explore the notion of 'welcome'. As part of its Social Inclusion Inquiry (Giving Hope, Changing Lives), the partnership is considering options for making local communities more welcoming to new entrants (anyone moving into a neighbourhood), in a drive to improve levels of social inclusion. Written by Katherine Tonkiss
Date:: Tuesday 18th December 2012

Description: The ultimate Zombie Idea of Local Government lives on in the West of England but will budgetary and party political challenges spell an end for the directly elected mayoral model? Written by Thom Oliver
Date:: Friday 14th December 2012

Description: In her recent blog on financially distressed councils in general and West Somerset DC in particular, Catherine Staite suggested that we should be talking more about "streamlining the machinery of local government … merging smaller councils", and in effect institutionalising some of the multiplying numbers of apparently cost-saving shared service and shared staffing arrangements. Written by Chris Game
Date:: Wednesday 12th December 2012

Description: Last month West Somerset District Council sent up a distress flare. They can't make ends meet and it is only going to get worse. At the other end of the scale, the Leader of Birmingham City Council has announced £600m of cuts and declared that the changes which are coming will be 'the end of local government as we know it'. LB Barnet's 'graph of doom' demonstrates how rising social care costs will eat up their resources until there is no capacity to do anything else but social care and emptying the dustbins. Written by Catherine Staite.
Date:: Tuesday 4th December 2012

Description: Both Jeremy and I were aware that the decision to allow Gurkhas to settle in the UK following their service in the British Army, famously fought for by Joanna Lumley, had had a negative impact on Nepal. Gurkhas now look towards their future in the UK and therefore no longer send large amounts of money home to Nepal to be invested there. Anna Townsend is a military wife and founder of Women Without Roofs – Nepal. She recently completed an MSc in Poverty Reduction and Development Management with IDD.
Date:: Monday 26th November 2012

Description: As the only city to hold a mayoral referendum last May and vote in favour, Bristol confirmed its reputation as a city that marches to the beat of a different drum. The mayoral election in November reinforced this maverick status with electors decisively (albeit on a turnout of only 27.9%) electing Independent candidate George Ferguson as Mayor. Post written by Martin Scott.
Date:: Friday 23rd November 2012

Description: Only one eligible voter in every three participated in the local elections in May 2012, the lowest turnout since 2000 and despite a context of austerity and swingeing public spending cuts. The recent elections for Police and Crime Commissioners saw turnout slump to a record low for a national poll, averaging at 15%. To quote a Guardian editorial, 'lack of engagement is the most eloquent of all the political messages… Blog post written by Catherine Durose.
Date:: Monday 19th November 2012

Displaying 21 to 30 of 136

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 … Next