The amount of political “heat” surrounding the government’s Work Experience programme seems to be in inverse proportion to the amount of policy “light”. Critics describe it as akin to “slavery”, while the Secretary of State retorts by describing them as “modern day Luddites”. Not only is this exchange of insults neither sensible nor constructive, it obscures the more interesting and important issues.
Tag Archives: government
NHS privatisation: Compilation of financial and vested interests
This list represents the dire state of our democracy. The financial and vested interests of our MPs and Lords in private healthcare. Why are these people allowed to be in charge of our NHS, to vote on a bill that they clearly have something to gain from. Who cares that they have put it in the register of interests. This doesn’t excuse their interests, it merely highlights clearly why they should have no part in the privatisation of the NHS. It is privatisation, despite the media’s continued use of the word ‘reforms’. The question must be asked. Are they public servants or corporate servants?
Social Investigations: NHS privatisation: Compilation of financial and vested interests
The mobile question: Responsive Design
With Government making rapid progress towards a single domain, we’re presented with a fantastic opportunity to start from scratch. So… GDS is turning to responsive design – a solution that we think can offer a high quality user experience that is both easy to use and performs consistently across a massive range of devices and screen sizes.Simply put, responsive design is the discipline of building a website based on a flexible grid system, where the elements on the page rearrange themselves depending on the size of the browser being used.
Government Digital Service: The mobile question: Responsive Design
Equipping IT project managers
A post on the BCS Project Eye blog back in November 2009, which picked up on the failure of the government’s C-Nomis project, sparked a lively debate among blog readers as to why so many big IT projects fail. Suggestions ranged from failure to monitor progress, to lack of accountability and ownership to arbitrary political pressure. However, one recurring message seemed to be that IT projects fail because of inexperience or simple incompetence.
Why do councils love jargon?
Local councils have been warned over a slew of jargon that baffles ordinary people, but why do they love to obfuscate?
The Local Government Association’s list of 100 words that should not be used in communication with the general public makes for alarming reading.
Calling for a ban
These days, I don’t often have cause to encounter the Metro newspaper that clutters the entirety of the London public transport system of a morning. For something that used to play a vaguely significant role in my morning routine, I feel I should miss it.
The truth of the matter is that I don’t. In fact, I’m rather glad that I don’t encounter it, as it saves me from the temptation to read it. The paper is a muddle of articles partly recycled from the previous day’s Evening Standard, awkwardly-written “light interest” items, and a crossword.
A one-way street to postcode madness
An up-to-date list of addresses is vital for local authorities – but they have to pay for the data they created themselves
Nail ‘em up, I say
The headmaster of the secondary school I attended is a man by the name of Tony Hill, and there he is grinning down from the header of their site (one of the best-known designers’ techniques for getting the client to like the work you produce is to get a nice big photo of them and stick it everywhere—whether that’s what happened here I couldn’t possibly say). He used to use expressions like “Tremendous!” and “Jolly well done!” and “Over a hundred pupils!”, and probably still does. He’s the kind of guy that likes people to get involved, and this is probably why he makes a good secondary comprehensive headmaster.
For me, both as a pupil and now, the most interesting thing about Tony Hill is how similar he is to Tony Blair. It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly it is they have in common, other than the fact that one always reminds me of the other. In fact, I once had a dream that I met Tony Blair, in which he shook my hand and grinned “Tremendous!”. I laughed so hard I woke myself up.