Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is in the process of appointing around half a dozen additional special advisers (SpAds). This will apparently take the overall number of SpAds across Whitehall to around 80, above the level at the end of the Labour administration (and not counting other political appointees within the civil service, let...
This is not so much whether the riots and their aftermath have been the biggest test the Prime Minister has faced since coming to office, which seems to be the view of most commentators, but rather what kind of leadership is required to deal with such events. This has achieved greater prominence following the...
The Institute’s new working paper, Supporting Heads of Government, compares the support the UK Prime Minister receives with five other countries and highlights some key differences, especially in the type and amount of advice he receives on policies. The debate in the UK is typically characterised by a very negative attitude towards increasing the...
The National Economic Committee (NEC) was an ‘Economic War Council’ to drive the government response to the recession. This was a different sort of cabinet committee, that: met weekly (twice weekly at the start) was chaired by the PM and met in the famous COBRA crisis room – to reinforce the message this was not...
