D2’s post on statis (it’s the new change) and crap government IT brought something to mind. Dan mentions the success of the Bank of England-run Crest settlement system for the London Stock Exchange, contrasted with the hellbroth of disaster the NHS National Programme for IT is descending into. One thing I think he should have…
Read More Why BT’s bit of the NHS IT contract worksThe RBC’s James Wimberley posts on one of those wonderful “competitiveness surveys” rightwing people like. Apparently the US has fallen from 1st to 6th, which would be important if it meant anything. Wimberley did a more formal and scientific version of this old post of mine, in which I plotted GDP growth rates and rankings…
Read More Useless Competitiveness SurveysAh, those fine Blairite institutions. South Maidstone is apparently to be blessed with a school where some rich person gets 51 per cent of the votes for 20 per cent of the money, but something has gone terribly wrong. Specifically, the Tory-run Kent county council is trying to do something unfashionable. According to our sources,…
Read More AcademiesIf you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll know most of the stuff in this Washington Post story, but it’s good to have it all in a handy quick-reference guide.
Read More In their own worldThe 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 managerialismBack 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 stupidityAll right then, can anyone tell me why we are suddenly in a crisis regarding illegal immigration? We weren’t, as far as I can tell, yesterday. Now we are, and the BBC is running BNP-it’s-OK-to-like deep stater Andrew Green’s pet thinktank and a special feature from resigned-on-principle-five-minutes-before-his-line-manager-got-there IO Steve Moxon, intercut with fuzzy video of…
Read More Crisis!