The Grauniad yesterday interviewed David Nicholson, who’s just been appointed chief executive of the NHS. The text is illuminating in the extreme, especially in terms of managerialism and technocracy. David Nicholson, the new chief executive of the NHS in England, took up the reins of office last week and set about dispelling the notion that…
Read More A case study in managerialismLudlum, right? Author of crappy thrillers, who invented the standard operating procedure of titling your book The (enter random name) (enter intriguingly sinister plot item). I present something similar. What might finally push the Blair over the edge? I theorise that it’s The Edinburgh Gambit. According to Tom Green Ribbon Griffin, the Liberals in Scotland…
Read More Robert Ludlum, eat your heart outI’ve never taken the West Lothian question very seriously (how many men have we lost because of it?), and I usually don’t engage with it. But there is something I’d like to fork over about the semi-federal nature of Britain. One may recall that, not so long ago, Dave from PR and other Tories were…
Read More The West Yorkshire QuestionThe North Koreans are attention-seeking again, flaunting the possible launch of some sort of rocket that possibly might be the putative Taepodong-2 ICBM. And, apparently, the US government is thinking of shooting it down with their ballistic missile defence system. Well, system. Experimental test rig would be more accurate. This is incredibly stupid. Fortunately for…
Read More Missile Defence and DeterrenceBack in the 1990s, before foreign fighters and eye-catching initiatives, one of the catchcries of the Labour Party as it arrived in government was “evidence-based policy”. This meant, as far as anyone knew, that the government’s activity would be subject to review on the basis of results, and that choices would be made according to…
Read More Evidence-based stupidityTapped has a useful suggestion: why not export Tony Blair to a Democratic Leadership Council thinktank? He’ll be happier there, and will do less damage. They suggest we might want Joe Lieberman in exchange. Not so sure about that. Apparently, Subhas Chandra Bose is not buried on Taiwan as previously thought, and the grave that…
Read More Links Now, Content LaterI don’t usually engage with the “decent left”/”pro-war left”/whatever gabble, but this is ridiculous. Sadly, the Evening Standard‘s web presence is still too impossibly dire to link to, so this has had to wait. Kelly said she wouldn’t change the way social housing was allocated in response to the success of the BNP in using…
Read More Nick CohenWhat a reshuffle it was, too. Despite all the pre-election expectations management (it’ll only be serious if it’s a loss of 400), it looks like the local elections really perturbed Blair’s systems. Take a look. So, after all the stand-by-your-man stuff, it’s the Angolan option after all, as Alan Clark would have put it. The…
Read More Chainsaw ReshuffleWell, after almost a full fortnight of semi-frantic canvassing and leaflet dropping around the streets of Englefield Green East, that’s it. I was not elected to the council. No surprises there. I polled some 282 votes, compared to 165 for the Lib Dems last time out. The two Tory candidates got in with 591 and…
Read More Runnymede Report BackWell, those of you who are taking part in today’s protest against the Serious and Organised Crime & Police Act, aka the Brian Haw Act, may get to meet…me, as I’m quite likely to come over to the camp at Runnymede from the TYR operations centre in fabulous Egham. Beware.
Read More Demon Strate!