A new report proposes a budgetary increase of some £10 billion a year that would be lavished on a rebranded, semi-independent body called “Global Affairs UK”, run by people who disdain our traditions and want to put our mid-sized, offshore country firmly in its place.
Prime Ministers have a natural inclination to avoid the disruption that re-organising the centre of government would bring. But to govern effectively, change has become necessary.
Sacked Post Office chair’s damning memo puts Kemi Badenoch in dangerous territory.
The NHS which has seen its productivity collapse, and is facing enormous cost pressures as the population ages, must surely be first in line for the application of the tools as they emerge.
This will not be the last scandal to come to light and, given the impact of ITV’s drama, other scandals may get similar television treatment. The contaminated blood story would make searing viewing.
Let’s not waste money on a duplicate of already existing regulatory infrastructure. Let’s either recognise international standards on these regulations, or replace them with better regulation.
It is one thing to insist that the executive operates within the constraints of the law; it is quite another, and grossly improper, to claim that the Government cannot try to pass new legislation to alter those constraints.
We hurl abuse at here-today-gone-tomorrow politicians and their advisers, while the permanent state flourishes like a green bay tree.
We need higher public sector productivity, lower costs of government, and a lower deficit. This can advanced with tax cuts which lower prices, create more supply, and boost incomes and profits to tax at home.
Hamas’ supporters or the authorities? Sunak needs to show that offenders will be prosecuted – and, if the situation deteriorates, to push for march bans, shuffle his Cabinet and show an all-party front with Starmer.
The second part of our series on reducing demand for government, in which we set out a programme for change – focused on families, civil society and government.
You’d have thought it in jest if you’d been told that for £50 per citizen, a “Taskforce” drawn from the private sector would operate with a degree of independence from Whitehall, take risks and secure 357 million vaccine doses in nine months – all under-budget.
The First Minister stands accused of having officials draw up new statistics to “reverse engineer” an excuse for his wildly inaccurate statements about an independent Scotland’s energy potential.
If ministers are going to start holding senior mandarins publicly accountable for their alleged failures, it is inevitable that those officials are going to start publicly defending their records.
Reforms that work with the grain of the key constitutional principles of ministerial and collective responsibility are those most likely to strengthen executive government in practice.