Print magazine - Parliamentary Brief

Print magazine: March 2010

Wanted: professionals not public robots

Britain needs public sector professionals released from the rigid constraints and distortions of current management systems, says Eileen Munro — and they are desperate to be liberated to do what they do best...

Caring more, shouting less

By poisoning the political discourse on this care issue, says Donald Hirsch it has made it harder to achieve something similar to the pension reforms that followed the Turner Commission cCommission
New broom is not a clean sweep

The key to the Tory success in 1951-55, says Tim Bale was that men like Rab Butler knew not just what the government should choose to do but also what it should choose not to do

Respect Holyrood? Then let them raise their own cash

Oh, and you’d have fewer Scots at Westminster, says James Mitchell — a nice bonus for the Tories

Hanging in the balance

A hung parliament is the talk of the political town. But as John Curtice explains, there are ‘hung parliaments’ and ‘hung parliaments’
Pretending you can make an aspiration into law

Mark Elliott: “It is increasingly common for legislation to be enacted that impose targets on government ministers — to reduce carbon emissions, cut government borrowing, and so on. This article considers what, if anything, might be the point of enacting legislation which — because it lays down requirements which are, as we will see, largely unenforceable in a legal sense — is ultimately aspirational in nature.” » more

The electoral survey that put the X in the wrong box

Antonia Tildesley: “W HETHER you’re a small business trying to identity check customers or someone tracing long-lost friends, the edited electoral register is a public database that has proved vital to both consumers and businesses alike. Now after a recent Data Sharing Review made some far-reaching recommendations and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) published a consultation paper, the future of the register is at risk.” » more

2000 laws a year that no one seems to care about

Andrew Blick: “A frequently voiced concern about the quality of democratic oversight in the UK is that government produces an excessively large and increasing quantity of legislation which parliament is unable properly to scrutinise.” » more
The powerbrokers we need onside

Professor Anthony King argues that the political strategy in Afghanistan still continues to ignore the political-lords who dominate the country outside Kabul

The political picture missing from the battleplan

Anthony King: “In April 2006, British forces deployed to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan as part of NATO’s widening mission in the country. The fighting in Helmand has been the most intense in which British forces have been engaged since the Korean War. Yet despite the bravery and professionalism of British troops on the ground, disquiet about the military conduct of the campaign has become increasingly pronounced.” » more

Canada's costly war while Britain is in Helmand

Anthony King: : Founded by Alexander in 330 BC on the junction of trade routes between the Indus and Oxus valleys, Kandahar City has been the sacred and symbolic homeland for the Pashtuns since at least 1748 when Ahmed Shah Durrani made it the capital of the Durrani empire. The city houses over 2,000 mosques including the Shrine of the Cloak of Mohammed …
And the next war is ...

Andrew Dorman: “Last month Bob Ainsworth, Gordon Brown’s current Secretary of State for Defence, published a defence green paper Adaptability and Partnership: Issues for a Strategic Defence Review. This document followed on from his pledge last July that the government would conduct a Strategic Defence Review (SDR) early in the next parliament and in the interim produce a green paper which would seek to ask the questions that would form the backdrop to the new SDR.” » more

A new SDR must not repeat the mistakes of 1998

Andrew Dorman: “In July 1998 George Robertson, Tony Blair’s first Secretary of State for Defence, published The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) some 14 months after the start of the review and 8 months late. Labour’s 1997 election manifesto had committed the party to holding a defence review which would re-establish a direct link between foreign policy and defence policy. Furthermore, Robertson argued that the United Kingdom should adopt the US Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) model: a defence review every parliament to ensure that defence continued to link policy to strategy.” » more

The defence review: affordability must be the cart, strategy the horse

Paul Cornish: “These are certainly hard times for defence. British armed forces have a demanding operational role in Afghanistan, and are likely to be there for several more years. For good reason, the UK involvement in Afghanistan — known as Operation Herrick — is currently the main concern in defence policy-making and planning.” » more
Britain's duty if no deal in Cyprus

The UN-brokered talks intended to bring about a reunification of Cyprus, and which began in September 2008, have made little real progress, and command little popular support on either side. Handshakes with the UN’s Ban Ki-moon, who flew in in February in the hope of giving the talks a boost, served only to underline the problems which confront any meaningful settlement on an island bitterly divided for the past 47 years. Failure of these talks will mean the end of any hope of future reunification. If so, the next British government will need a new approach, argues Michael Stephen
The check book that the banks cannot bounce

Rosa Lastra: “The financial crisis has triggered a revolution in regulatory thinking. Once relegated to the obscure universe of the specialist, financial regulation has now come to the forefront of economic and policy debate. The crisis has shown that markets cannot always be trusted to deliver what is good for society, since the pursuit of the private interest has proven at times to be greatly misaligned with the pursuit of the common good.” » more
Gridlocked Stormont is the price of peace

Paul Bew:Sir John Chilcot, a mandarin’s mandarin, has been chairing the Iraq War inquiry with great skill. What has attracted less attention is the way in which his legacy in Northern Ireland is playing itself out. Sir John was permanent Under-Secretary in Northern Ireland for most of the 1990s, leaving the post just before the Good Friday Agreement, to which he had contributed so much …