Improving how Whitehall does its core business
Across the world, systems of government are increasingly under strain, caught in a rut towards obsolescence – that’s my claim, at least. Whenever I declare my position many are surprised. ‘But you are from Finland! Surely you are not talking about Finland too?’ Well, yes I am. Within the European context, Finland has the...
While efforts to improve use of data and evidence in policy making are all to the good, stories and experience must also be part of the policy making toolkit. Our partnership with the Big Lottery Fund is helping policy makers connect with the real world. Going out, observing, listening, talking to the people that...
Earlier this week, the politicians on the Public Accounts Committee joined the long list of people concerned about the UK’s infrastructure deficit. Their report portrayed the Treasury’s Infrastructure Plan as “a list of projects, not a real plan with a strategic vision and clear priorities”. It urged government to “ensure that the legislative and...
With a month of taking office, the new Government Chief Science Adviser, Sir Mark Walport, has become a pantomime villain to at least one environmental commentator, branded as an industry stooge for an article he wrote in the Financial Times in advance of the European debate. Indeed the article went further – to claim...
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan-Smith has urged the wealthy to hand back their benefits. Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham, meanwhile, has re-opened the low pay debate, urging firms to pay staff the ‘living wage’ and suggesting Labour might legislate to end ‘zero hours contracts’, which force employees...
It is well known that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is ill-suited as a measure of material living standards. Efforts to find alternatives abound, ranging from surveys of well-being to a multiplicity of measures that lump together various indicators of prosperity into one overall score. We have contributed to this debate through the LSE...
For those unfamiliar with the book or film, Moneyball author Michael Lewis celebrates the success of a baseball manager, Billy Beane, who works with a statistics-obsessed colleague to transform the fortunes of his team, pushing them from second-tier to the top of the league. Beane’s secret was to discard the dogmas and intuitions of...
This is what the chief secretary to the Treasury should have said in his opening remarks: “We face a prolonged period of fiscal austerity. The Treasury will no longer be prepared to finance policies which are not demonstrably working – nor can we underwrite speculative policies which are not supported by a reasonable evidence...
When the foot and mouth scandal broke, a friend of mine in government said that the basic problem was that cattle travelled all over the country before they were slaughtered. We are now discovering that “meat” has a eurorail pass before it gets to the shops or into the school dinner. That means that...
