The Economist has just released this report on smart cities – “the real story of how citizens and businesses are driving smart cities.” It seemed like a good excuse to put some of my own thoughts together on a topic whose flavoursome profile sometimes seems to outstrip both substance and impact. But a topic which […]
“In the difficult decade ahead we will need all the honest informed advice, and loyal in-house dissent, that we can get.”
The resignation of the UK’s Ambassador to the European Union, Sir Ivan Rogers, in the context of continuing uncertainty about Britain’s Brexit negotiations, has prompted some timely reflections about the value and impact of the traditional notion of an impartial and professional public service capable of advising governments of different political persuasions. It has also […]
If government is more than a machine: a view from 1918
In my reading for a recent post on the shifting nature of ministerial-civil service relationships. I read the 1981 “Haldane” report. This is a report, much quoted in the business of public administration theory and practice (I know, thrilling stuff…), chaired by Viscount Haldane and a small group of worthies, to focus on “the responsibilities […]
Institutional tectonic plates 2
After my brief Paul-Kelly inspired comments last week about the institutional shape-shifting implications of the US presidential election. this is a second reflection on a similar theme but from a rather different angle. Less spectacularly, but perhaps no less significantly, these brief reflections from the London School of Economics about the changing nature of civil […]
Institutional tectonic plates 1
This is the first of two posts about very different, but linked stories which both point to big, grinding shifts in the institutional tectonic plates on which democracy and systems of successful public governance rely. The first piece is from Paul Kelly (the journalist, not the singer, although I suspect Paul Kelly the singer might […]
Have you read War and Peace (and does it matter?)
Screens and social media addictions are changing, perhaps irreparably damaging our brains. It’s a view often associated with Susan Greenfield, the British peer, scientist and brain expert who, as I recall at one lecture I heard her give, pits “people of the book” against “people of the screen”. Shorter attention spans, an unwillingness or incapability […]
