Policy making | Alex's Archives

Tag Archives | Policy making

New housing ideas from One Nation Labour?

admin / April 30, 2013 / Housing / Permalink

Under the heading A One Nation programme with new ideas to begin turning Britain’s economy around yesterday Ed Miliband outlined six bills that would appear in Labour’s alternative Queen’s speech. It is good to see him offering some policy detail, at last, but to what extent are we being offered new ideas?

The focus of the housing component of his statement was the private rented sector, which in one sense is new. The idea that the political battle to be fought over housing was going to be fought over private renting is one that would have made no sense a few years ago. And whether it is the biggest problem facing the housing system at the moment, given the broader context of poor affordability for a nation of frustrated aspirant home owners, could be debated.

Leaving that to one side, what did he offer? Continue Reading →

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Research and the policy process

admin / February 13, 2013 / Politics / Permalink

[This text accompanies a presentation made to a SW Crucible event on 13^th February]

In this post I offer a perspective on academic research and the Whitehall policy process. It draws on interactions of various types in and around Whitehall going back to the start of the Major government. That includes having been involved in quite a few research projects and evaluations contracted by government departments and quangos.

One point to make at the outset is that different Whitehall departments have very different cultures, including their orientation towards research – they differ in where research sits in relation to other considerations as an input into policy thinking. And of course practice within Departments evolves over time. So I’m not sure there are many truly general lessons to be drawn.

So this is just one perspective, albeit a perspective that is also informed by the literature on research utilization. There are no doubt others with different experiences and different insights to share.

I want to make some comments under six headings. Continue Reading →

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Fool me once …

admin / October 8, 2012 / Politics / Permalink

Plenty of political announcements made at this time of year are little more than conference fodder. They grab a headline and a round of applause and that’s the last we hear of them. But George Osborne’s proposals to cut another £10bn from welfare don’t fall into that category. They were buried in the detail of previous policy statements and it was only a matter of time before they bubbled to the surface. Conference season is the ideal time because it allows some posturing against the modern folk devil – the feckless scrounger.

We only have media reports of Osborne’s speech at the moment, and we’ve no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, but a key element to this story is going to be how it plays out within the Coalition.

Clearly the New Victorians of the Conservative party are full-speed ahead for cutting welfare, with a strongly Malthusian undertone that if we lose a few scroungers along the way through starvation then that’ll save us a bit of money.

But the Liberal Democrat position is a bit more complex. Continue Reading →

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Paying for plastic

admin / August 1, 2012 / Politics / Permalink

Calls for a plastic bag tax for England have reappeared in the news.

The latest statistics show a sharp increase in plastic bag usage over the last year in England, but a drop in usage in Wales where a tax was introduced in October last year. So calls for a tax in England have returned.

The Government’s rejection of a plastic bag tax in England was widely report back in June. There appears to have been a bid to get a tax included in the budget and then again in the Queen’s speech. But pressure from Caroline Spelman to move in this direction was rejected by George Osborne.

England appears to be swimming against the tide on this issue. Not only is tax is already in place in Wales but also in Northern Ireland. And one is being considered in Scotland. Continue Reading →

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Age, ignorance or incompetence?

admin / June 3, 2012 / Politics / Permalink

What a shocking week for the Government. We’re well past the odd mishap. As the Government careers from one problem to another we’re now shading into something rather more embarrassing. With the exception of some über-loyalists with an eye to preferment, excoriating comment is emerging from all points on the political spectrum.

Continue Reading →

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Policy, information and transparency

admin / April 8, 2012 / Politics / Permalink

The Information Tribunal delivered its decision last week on the release of the risk registers associated with the Health & Social Care Bill. The Information Tribunal concluded that the Information Commissioner was correct in the initial decision that the release of the transitional risk register (TRR) – but not the strategic risk register – was in the public interest. And the Government was wrong to refuse to release it. I’m surprised that this decision did not attract more attention. Perhaps there’s a sense that the battle has already been lost. I understand the Department of Health is considering whether there are any legal grounds for challenging the Tribunal’s decision.

The IT’s report is not perhaps the most engaging of documents, but there is quite a bit of interest in it, beyond the fact that the Tribunal found against the Government. Continue Reading →

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Has Coalition 2.0 bitten the dust?

admin / January 30, 2012 / Politics / Permalink

It would appear that Coalition 2.0 is heading for the scrapheap. At least that is what Matt Chorley reported in yesterday’s Independent on Sunday. Last year the Coalition partners were talking about needing a mid-term document to set out a further joint agenda for the second half of this Parliament. They were expecting to have dealt with all the measures in the original coalition agreement. They anticipated being at a bit of a loose end during 2013-15. It looks like that will no longer be necessary. Continue Reading →

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A malign influence

admin / January 27, 2012 / Politics / Permalink

Lobbying is corrosive. The lobbying industry adds nothing of genuine value to society. It is insidious because it undermines citizens’ belief that democracy is transparent and that politics seeks to serve the public interest. It fosters the impression, if not the also the reality, that policy is being made for the benefit of the few rather than the many.

One of the most welcome commitments the Government made in the May 2010 Coalition agreement was that:

We will regulate lobbying through introducing a statutory register of lobbyists and ensuring greater transparency.

Oliver Letwin published the consultation paper Introducing a statutory register of lobbyists last week. It was shortly followed by the Guardian article on The Chemistry Club, which reinforced – if such reinforcement were necessary – just how pernicious lobbying is.

Liberal democrats have a long and noble track record of championing the cause of open government. Transparency is vital to liberal democracy. Many will therefore have a close interest in this consultation. They should have. Because the Government’s proposals are lousy. Continue Reading →

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Chaos in all directions

admin / December 22, 2011 / Politics / Permalink

What do we want from a government? Not in terms of the substance of policy but in the way it goes about its business. At a minimum we might reasonably expect competence. And we’d want it to play by the rules. We’d want a government to follow due process and, if its members conclude that process is not fit for purpose, to use agreed procedures to move to a new model of policy making. And we’d look to a government to embrace the values of accountability and transparency in order to rebuild the trust of a disillusioned electorate.

Is that what we’ve got?

Or is the Coalition turning out to be a bit of a policy making disaster area? Perhaps all coalitions governments are. We’re just not used to it. Continue Reading →

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The media and the subversion of democracy

admin / November 20, 2011 / Politics / Permalink

The media, both old and new, is currently under intense scrutiny. Last week James Murdoch was back before the Media Select Committee, making his bid for the title of least inquisitive Chief Executive in corporate history. On Monday we witnessed a fascinating encounter between the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Privacy and Injunctions and four high profile members of the blogging community. The bloggers adopted more or less abrasive approaches when responding to the Committee’s questions. The aim was to explore the ways in which privacy issues are handled online. I suspect that not all the bloggers’ answers would reassure the Committee that the bloggers’ power, such as it is, will be exercised responsibly. Perhaps more worrying was the fact that several members of the committee did not appear to have a strong feel for the relevant law (as discussed by one of the four bloggers, David Allen Green, here). The Committee had an even shakier grasp of what this “blogging” lark was all about. That didn’t stop dark mutterings about the need for greater regulation, the practicalities of which were not explored.