Written by Kieron O'Hara Friday, 20 August 2010 09:36
The Home Office is keen to resurrect the idea of using the benefit system to nudge drug and alcohol users into seeking and completing courses of treatment. In a consultancy exercise, they ask a serious question of 'partners', carefully balancing carrot and stick.
(a) some form of financial benefit sanction, if...
Written by Kieron O'Hara Monday, 19 July 2010 14:37
A truly horrible performance by Michael Gove on the Today programme. Criticised for rushing through far-reaching reforms, he replied that there has been 'ample time' for debate and scrutiny, and that, because this is a manifesto commitment, Parliamentary debate will be compressed so that some schools can opt out of local authority control by September.
Let us separate out two issues, which Mr Gove did not allow Sarah Montague to...
Written by Kieron O'Hara Tuesday, 13 July 2010 09:15
After pleasantly surprising Jill Kirby last Friday, Andrew Lansley is at it again, announcing changes to the NHS that are far more radical than anyone expected.
Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary for six years, knows more about the NHS than most and is clearly impatient to make his mark, but, welcome as NHS reform is, there is a whiff of the old-New Labour permanent revolution driven from the top down...
Written by Kieron O'Hara Tuesday, 11 May 2010 11:59
During the election campaign, it transpired that Nick Clegg's hero was Samuel Beckett. I have to say that at that particular piece of information, he rose in my estimation. The events of the last couple of days, however, imply that he has spent more time reading Waiting for Godot than, say, Endgame (still less Happy Days).
From this, my thoughts move to matters literary, and as so often it seems...
Written by Kieron O'Hara Friday, 16 April 2010 07:22
Perhaps it's my conservatism, but I seem to be the only person in the country feeling a little depressed after last night's debate. I feel it's a retrograde moment for politics, and I'm still trying to put my finger on why.
Three things stand out. First, the analysis of the event marks a decisive shift from evaluating policy in terms of its coherence, consistency, cost and effectiveness, to judging it by...
