After the general election, I found myself sharing platforms with people who wanted to talk about cross-party co-operation, notably a fascinating debate with Caroline Lucas in Hay-on-Way. More on this another day, I hope. Most of these have been debates about...
Our blogs
What We Can Learn from Bus Stops
One of the best architectural commissions in the world is now on view in a small mountainous region of Austria called the Bregenzerwald. The project involves seven bus stops on the bus routes round the small village of Krumbach (1,000 souls) including stops built by...
Why it’s time to define Englishness
“Dinner was announced soon after our arrival, which consisted of the following things,” writes the Rev James Woodforde describing his meal on 20 April 1796, in a diary which – in a very English way – lists the food in great detail but barely mentions God at all. Then...
The Threat from the Disabled
This week the Independent Living Fund was closed by the Government. This fund has, since 1988, supported profoundly disabled people to live at home in the way they want to. It has been a totally brilliant scheme -giving its participants the power to employ the carers...
People-powered prosperity: what’s possible?
Sunny outlook with a chance of local banking. That is the title of our New Weather event at the Hay Festival tomorrow (May 29, 11.30am). Andrew Simms and I will be talking to Green MP Caroline Lucas about many things, including local banking and including the New...
Come and talk about the circular economy
Maybe the first management consultant was James Oscar McKinsey, a US army logistics officer who became a professor of accounting at Chicago University after the First World War. A lone and exhausting copy of his text book on accountancy is still available in the...
Where are the real bread-and-butter issues?
I had to phone the HMRC’s tax credits helpline last week. I had to report that my household income had risen this month. I’m obliged to do so for fear of the most appalling consequences if I don’t. I can’t apparently do so online, at least until my annual information...
The Problem of Responsibility
Catchy title, I know. But a little cache of letters I found recently, dating from 1965, raised the question of political responsibility. And it was a jolt to realise how far we have come- gone- in terms of direct engagement between the governed and the government. My...
The three biggest distortions of the election
Spare a thought for a moment for the hapless policy wonk. I don’t really speak as a representative of the guild, so to speak – I am far too opinionated. But I have enough policy wonk in my genes to know what they are going through, and two weeks from a general...
