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How Many Homes Does the UK Need?
Decades of lacklustre housebuilding and recent record migration have left the UK with a shortfall of more than 6.5 million homes. The debut research by Head of Housing Ben Hopkinson shows how the UK has fallen dramatically behind comparable European countries, with British families paying the price through unaffordable homes.
Privitise the Prosecutors: Efficiency and Justice in the Criminal Courts
In 1985, the Conservative government created the Crown Prosecution Service. Unlike other state-administered services the CPS was not intended to further Utopian ideals of equality and social justice, nor to harmonise one area of public service provision with others.
Inspecting the School Inspectors: New Plans, Old Ills
This paper considers the future nature of school inspection as a result of the 1992 Education Schools Act. It argues that the new school inspection will fail, with serious consequences for standards in our schools, if it is implemented as planned.
An Entitlement to Knowledge: Agenda for the new schools authority
The Conservative Government has now reached the most important stage in its reforms of state education. The education Bill currently before parliament proposes the setting up of a single body to control examinations and the curriculum.
The Disease of Direct Labour Buying better for the public
The Citizen’s Charter has rightly put emphasis on better services for the public. ‘Better’ implies both quality and price and also communication – clear, simple information about what is going on.
Privatisation Everywhere: the world’s adoption of the British experience
The worldwide collapse of state socialism has focused new attention on the workings of a free economy. Interest centres above all on how the huge range of industries presently languishing in state control around the globe can be successfully transferred to private ownership.
Monetary Policy after Maastricht: how much independence will Britain Possess?
Recent discussion about the implications of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union has been far ranging and sometimes intense, but little attention has been paid to the nature and extent of the legal obligations assumed by the United Kingdom under the Treaty in relation to monetary union.
The Unhelping Hand: Governments’ intervention in industry
The Labour Party must see itself as omniscient, if it really believes that its industrial policy will set Britain on the road to international success. Industrial policy is the refuge of politicians who realise that nationalisation is no longer fashionable but who still maintain that they know better than market which products will prosper.
The Role of Religion: In the fall of Soviet Communism
The Hugh Seton-Watson memorial lecture of 1988 was the occasion of a devastating analysis of the failure of communism. Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski forecast its coming collapse in heroic style, a prophecy which was to be dramatically fulfilled.
The Political Consequences of PR: the British idea of responsible Government
We are at the moment going through another cycle of demands for electoral reform. No doubt this has been prompted in part by the nearness of a general election, the outcome of which might be a so-called ‘hung’ Parliament in which no single party would have an overall majority.
What’s good for woods
In the past woodlands were a source of wood – and that, for most people, was that.
What’s wrong with Capital Gains Tax
In the political world the general view of capital gains tax is one of indifference; it is a subject little discussed.
Towards an Employee’s Charter
After more than ten years of employment law reform it is not surprising that some are now calling for a halt to the process. But the government have refused to listen to these siren voices and instead have recently recommended further changes in their Green Paper Industrial Relations in the 1990s.
The Importance of Parenting
My topic – the quality of parenting – is an emotional minefield. But when deficient it underlies many problems and caused much misery.
Sense of Sovereignty
Any Martian who spend the year 1991 observing events on Earth would have concluded that something called ‘sovereignty’ was one of the most important elements of human affairs.
Soviet Calculations: The shifting correlation of forces
A year ago, we were told that history had ended. Those who questioned this proposition can feel justified, though far from comforted, by the fact that it has been so quickly disproved.
LEA’s Old & New: A view from Wandsworth
The days of the LEAs as most of them still operate, are or should be numbered. They must no longer play the dominant role in deciding the range of schools, or the nature of the education provided, in any area.
