Tag Archives: public services

Mark Pack

Trial and error is the most successful problem solving technique

By Mark Pack | Tue 7th June 2011 - 6:54 am

So said Tim Harford (known to many as the presenter of Radio 4’s More or Less as well as a distinguished economics writer) last night at the Royal Society of Arts. Harford was kicking-off a week long series of talks to promote his new book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure and was making the point that the modern world is too complex for us to hope to solve many problems by simply getting the best brains to think up the one answer. A far better route to take is to experiment with many different solutions and see …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Mark Pack – The Lessons from Beethoven String Quartets for Modern Public Services

By Nick T | Wed 4th May 2011 - 10:25 am

Over on Discussion Point, our very own Mark Pack has penned an interesting piece discussing how public services can be reformed to meet changing circumstances. And yes, the piece really does successfully use a Beethoven string quartet as its starting point – but you’ll have to go and read the whole article to see how.

In the meantime, here’s an extract:

There was a period in the early 1990s when politicians, including many on the centre-left, were enthused with the idea of rethinking the purpose of public services in such radical ways as David Osborne and Ted Gaebler’s book Reinventing Government

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Alex Marsh

Opinion: The ethics of the case for public sector reform

By Alex Marsh | Thu 24th February 2011 - 6:05 pm

David Cameron’s article on public service reform in the Telegraph was the opening shot in what could be a significant battle both within the Coalition and across the House. The case presented raises at least three important ethical issues.

First, the way in which evidence is being used to justify these proposals is deeply suspect. Mr Cameron states that publicly providing bureaucratic and target-driven services might be worth supporting if they delivered quality services: “but the evidence shows otherwise. Whether it’s cancer survival rate, school results or crime, for too long we’ve been slipping against comparable countries”. These are very …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 25 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily Mail urges readers, “Vote Lib Dem”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 8th September 2009 - 6:20 pm

Well, almost. But those were the two words which leaped out from the screen when I saw this headline on the Mail’s website:


To speak to a human being when you phone customer services… vote LibDem

Here’s the story:

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Will Tory Barnet’s ‘Ryanair Council’ model backfire?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 29th August 2009 - 3:35 pm

There’s been plenty of reaction to yesterday’s Guardian story in which Tory-controlled Barnet council revelled in their plans to adopt the practices of no-frills airlines like Ryanair in their delivery of local services:

Barnet wants householders to pay extra to jump the queue for planning consents, in the way budget airlines charge extra for priority boarding. And as budget airline passengers choose to spend their budget on either flying at peaktime or having an in-flight meal, recipients of adult social care in Barnet will choose to spend a limited budget on whether to have a cleaner or a respite carer or even a holiday to Eastbourne. Other examples of proposed reforms include reducing the size of waste bins to minimise the cost of council rubbish collections.

The proposals are being seen as an example of “new Conservatism” which is spreading among Tory-controlled boroughs. Observers believe “radical outriders” such as Barnet offer a glimpse of how a David Cameron government could overhaul public service provision in an era of heavy spending cuts.

The Evening Standard’s Paul Waugh has dug out a couple of revealing quotes, first from Tory Barnet councillor John Hart:

With council tenants, and I’ll admit I am putting it crudely, it has been a lot of ‘my arse needs wiping, and somebody from the council can come and do it for me’.”

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged , , , , and | 4 Comments
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