Organisation: Government

An anti-democratic mini-meme developed amongst some of my liberal friends in the build-up to the EU referendum. For some people, democracy is a virtue and governance structures that provide more direct democratic accountability are…

For connoisseurs of government tripe on energy and the environment, the last couple of days have been like a banquet. The releases of the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, the Low Carbon Industrial Plan, the Carbon Reduction Strategy for…

Something is starting to bother me about the MPs' expenses scandal. I do not defend those MPs who have taken advantage of the lax rules that they instituted. They should go. But it is starting to feel to me that, for most people, this is…

Renewable energy has a number of benefits and disadvantages. The most significant of the benefits are the avoided carbon emissions and the energy-security benefits. The latter is more debatable - diversity is undoubtedly the key to security…

What does it mean if a government has to go to the IMF for funds? The government couldn't run a balanced budget. The economic outlook was so poor that there was little prospect of the budget coming back into balance over a reasonable…

Plenty of people hated Maggie, but plenty of people admired her too. Jim Callaghan and John Major may have been failures, but this was tempered by a sense that they were decent men trying, however ineffectually, to do the right thing. When…

We know that what follows is typical of how they see the world, but rarely do we see it spelt out so clearly. In the recently issued consultation on a Heat and Energy Saving Strategy, the Government details (p.13) "What we have already…

The dispute between Russia and Ukraine is yet again demonstrating the bleeding obvious that our Government manages to ignore because the big energy companies would rather look the other way. Our Government, opposition politicians, most…

The new Brown government is doing an incredible and shameless job of presenting a whole new load of ideas as though the past ten years were a massive mistake that was none of their doing.  In the same way we don't vote for a Prime Minister…

Every year we spend £23bn on government project cock ups. That is £900 per household! This cost simply comes from the extra costs added to projects because the government runs over budget - it doesn't take in to account the fact the most of…

So what have Government Ministers been doing for the last week? Almost five working days after they were appointed, there are many junior Ministers who seemingly do not yet know what they are supposed to be doing. Only a handful of…

JG has posted on the subject of Tony's legacy. This post started as a comment, and grew so large that I decided to post it separately. I must see things through an inverting lens. Reagan: Never a buffoon in the eyes of those old enough to…

Those who think that Britain's interests are best served by going along with this latest extension of EU powers (and even Tony Blair admitted that this is an extension of those powers) need to consider this: Each time that we hand powers to…

I don't like referenda. But it is perfectly obvious that the majority in the country does not believe that the "Reform Treaty" is not the Constitutional Treaty dressed up, and that they want a referendum on the subject as promised. And yet…

The Commons public accounts select committee has published a damning report on the state of the Government's IT projects stating that the government is losing its grip on them. Rather worryingly, one in five has been rated "mission critical…

As the Blair era comes to and end, there is and has already been much reflection on the past 10 years. Reform was always at the top of the New Labour agenda way back when before 1997. It was greeted with cheers and provided hope to the…

Michael Portillo wrote an interesting article in yesterday's Sunday Times. He seems to share a similar ethos to Picking Losers in many ways. I have taken a small extracts from the piece and published them below. Much of the article talks…

In a move that is almost beyond parody, Sir Hayden Phillips - the man who thinks our political parties would be cheap at £25,000,000 a year - thinks £13.50 is good value to tell us what good value the parties are. That's what a copy of his…

We appear to have a Government in paralysis, two leaders - neither of whom are in control - a lame duck and an impending coronation of a new PM after an election pledge by Blair to serve a full term. The latest piece of ego building by…

I am no fan of wind energy. It is hugely over-rated. But, like most energy sources, it has its place. To dismiss it or condemn it out-of-hand is as distorted a view as to hail it as the solution to all our energy problems. The Times today…

How can Mr Blair confuse the redistribution on taxpayers’ money to elite universities as “embedding a culture of charitable giving?” It is not charitable on the part of the government, that’s for sure - merely a smokescreen method for the…

The tensions of excess, both in private and public sectors, are starting to display themselves in debates over the just level of wages for various occupations. These debates occur every now and then, usually provoked by a sense of disparity…

For the past decade, the West has been relatively immune to price-/wage-inflation, despite significant expansions of the money supply and movement of various national balances from credit to debit, thanks to the deflationary effects of…

Gordon Brown has come out in favour of devolving power. But his idea of devolution is a little different to ours. Ideally, power should be devolved to the individual. (Actually, ideally the individual, not the government, should have the…