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Patently Absurd
Despite world-class universities and a strong science base, Britain produces fewer patents per person than most major economies. More concerning still, innovation in Britain is declining at the same time as it is accelerating in other global markets.
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America and Britain: Is the relationship still special?
To speak of a ‘special’ relationship between Britain and the United states is to embark on a delicate task of definition. Recently this description of the Anglo-American relationship has become a subject of controversy and, as in any polemic, its original content obscured and confused.
The Dearing debate: Assessment of the National Curriculum
At the Centre’s education conferences in 1993 – of which this is the third – one issues has been central: the role of the state versus that f the voluntary body in the country’s schools.
The Crisis of the Welfare State: Ethics and Economics
All over the world, lapel buttons inscribed ‘communism; have begun to fall like autumn leaves; but not only buttons marked ‘communism’, also those inscribed ‘socialism’.
The Constitutional Mania
A permanent feature of British political life is some conviction about the global cause of all our woes. Capitalism, the class system and inability to market our brilliant ideas are such familiar convictions. Since the 1980’s, however, opinion has settled on the British constitution, or, as some would say, the lack of one, as the primal fault.
The Blue Horizon
There is no point in pretending that our government and our party are riding high. My boss, Ken Clark, says that we are in a dreadful hole. If we are in a hole, we are certainly not alone. According to the opinion polls there is a general public disillusion with British politics and British politicians.
Testing Time: the Dearing Review and the future of the National Curriculum
Sir Ron Dearing’s Interim Report on his review of the National curriculum has seemed to many observers a politic compromise between the demands of teachers and the requirements of the Government. But it fails to tackle to Curriculum’s underlying problems, and its central proposals are confused and contradictory.
Britain and the Community: The Right Way Forward
Twenty years have passed since Britain committed itself to the Treaty of Rome and thereby became a member of what at the time was still formally designated the European Economic Community and known more familiarly as the Common Market.
Privatise 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.
