It took a Riot. This was the name of possibly the best-entitled cabinet paper ever submitted to a government. It was drawn up by Michael Heseltine after the Toxteth and Brixton riots of the early 80s. It advocated not a policing response to an earlier version of the breakdown of law and order in UK cities but a political and economic response.
Read More
I am a fan of a man most British people won’t have heard of – and not enough Australians come to that. His name is Noel Pearson and he has just published ‘Radical Hope : Education and Equality in Australia‘.
I’ve just sent this note (below)to a number of decision-makers in Wales. Although it is written about and for Wales it has a wider application. Overburdensome, risk averse public sector procurement rules are everywhere raising barriers to entry to smaller companies and in effect reducing competition. I say this as someone who has worked for a bigger consultancy and won many contracts from the public sector. I also used to advise Ministers on such matters.
I’ve been trying to work out a basic structure for a strategy document I’m writing for a local authority . I’ve been promiscuous in my research . I’ve 
hung around with McKinsey. I’ve walked around the block with Tom Peters. I’ve climbed over the barricades with Comrade Lenin (who had a simple and effective template for strategy development and implementation after all, though I don’t think my client is yet ready for revolutionary violence ).
Read More
Last time out I advocated two cheers for Edward Glaeser and his new book Triumph of the City. Only two because much of what he says about the virtues of cities is not new , some of what he advocates in terms of urban regeneration – I paraphrase but it’s reducible to ‘don’t bother’ – is too fatalistic and frankly too American, and sometimes he contradicts himself . What gets him the two cheers however is his understanding of how bad public policy is pushing people out of cities ,creating sprawl and adding to carbon emissions.
I’ve been reading again. This time it’s Edward Glaeser’s somewhat surprising best-seller – suprising because although it is a best-seller, there is very little in it that you city-lovers would find either surprising or new about why cities are good for us. It’s called ‘The Triumph of the City: how our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier’ – the kind of belt and braces title which means you now don’t even have to read the book. In parts ,its a kind of Freakonomics for urbanists which is a very bad model indeed for serious thinkers. So far, so banal and frankly so what. Wow,cities are great!
In Politics and the English Language Orwell pointed out that when politicians used obscure or opaque language it was never an accident. They had something to hide. I feel the same about the rebarbative lingo of financiers, sub-prime mortgage money-brokers and other snake-oil salesmen who brought us the Global Financial Crisis. Read More
My long awaited blog on how the usual suspects who should have gone to gaol in the Global Financial Crisis are now speculating in commodities, is delaye further :I blame inertia and the fact I’ve been on the road for most of May. One fact while you patiently await the delivery of ‘Goldman Sachs doing God’s work again’ is this:whereas world demand has risen by a little over 2% in the last year metal prices have risen over30% . Before anyone shouts out ‘China’ consider a second fact. The amount of world currency circulating has by some measures increased by 50% since the crisis of 2008. The world is awash with cash.Again.This is what Quantitative Easing means.The consequence is the same as last time only the asset is different. Massive speculation is taking place in commodities and their derivatives.Inflation is rising significantly and spooked investors are flocking to gold. And yes again, we are hearing that ‘this time it’s different’ which we always hear when a bubble is passed off as rooted in real demand rather than in speculation and leverage. It isn’t different this time .It’s deja vu all over again…..
I said this piece on education was coming. Here it is. I was lucky enough to be asked by the reforming education minister in Wales, Leighton Andrews, to be a member of a task and finish group he was setting up. Its aim was to review “the structure of education services in Wales”. Our chair was the excellent and not unamusing Vivian Thomas, former director of education at the Neath/Port Talbot local authority. My committee colleagues were former or current heads of schools, colleges or education departments – all passionate about improving education and passionate about Wales. None of them satisfied with the system we have or the outcomes it is providing for Welsh kids. Read More
Colleagues,comrades,friends,ladies and gentlemen,boneddigion a boneddigesau, boys and girls,fellow masons: I am back in the UK between 9th and 23 May to do some work with my former colleagues at Navigant Consulting. If anybody wants to meet up and chew the cud please contact me via this blog or indeed emma.trigg@navigantconsulting.com and we can make arrangements. I shall be in London most of the time but will get to Cardiff and Manchester during the visit. I am on a bit of world tour at the moment as I’m in New Zealand in the first week of May to launch a report on high speed broadband in New Zealand .
As to the blog,I’m posting a piece I’ve just done on the current commodities bubble – for such it is-followed by a summary of some work I’ve just been involved in for Wales on the reform of the structure of education in Wales. I was part of a group which apart from me was made up of former head teachers.We advocated pretty radical change in a report commissioned by the Minister for education,Leighton Andrews. I’d be intersted in your views on both.I will post the education piece tomorrow and the commodities piece (which is called :Goldman Sachs doing God’s work again)on Tuesday.
Latest news from Regen.net and PlanningResource.co.uk
Haymarket Business Media © 1957 – 2012 | Terms & Conditions | Contact us
