MAKING TIME TO REFORM PARLIAMENTARY TIME

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:28:25 +0000

All this talk of draft bills and Loyal Address amendments about an EU referendum raises several vital democratic issues of parliamentary process, not least that of the ways in which MPs, individually or collectively, can initiate debate or legislation on important topics of the moment.  At its heart, as always, lurks the core problem of […]

Ed Balls Ed Balls Ed Balls: Spad, Official or Both? The Joys of Research and Government Transparency

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:17:18 +0000

It is occasionally suggested by Whitehall veterans that Ed Balls began as a spad and ended as a civil servant. We have no such evidence that this happened. The confusion seems to lie in the fact that the previous person with the title ‘Chief Economic Adviser’ was a civil servant—Sir Alan Budd), as is the […]

Inaugural Lecture by the former Cabinet Secretary Lord (Gus) O’Donnell

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:56:53 +0000

23rd April 2013 Building a Better Government: the Political and Constitutional Reforms necessary to build Better Government After a lifetime in government ending up at its apex as Cabinet Secretary, Gus O’Donnell has come to the sobering conclusion that Britain suffers from deep rooted bad policies and bad ways of governing.  In his inaugural lecture […]