Demos Greenhouse
- National Security for the Twenty-First Century Today we launch a new report on national security. The report argues that the government lacks a clear and coherent view of the nature and priority of risks to the UK with Whitehall structured around functions and services with separate budgets for defence, foreign affairs and intelligence. This model of government may have suited the security environment of the Cold War but today's challenges demand a fundamental review of the way departments and agencies are organised. continue reading on 10th December 2007
- Fact and Fiction More than half the population have a library card and the number of visits to public libraries is increasing. Libraries are among the most loved and trusted public services. But debate has raged about the direction that libraries should take, and about where and how resources should be invested. Recently, Demos published an article in association with Hampshire County Council that looks at these debates and argues that the future of our libraries should lie in the hands of local people. continue reading on 7th December 2007 Comments (1)
- How do you tell one scratched CD in a rubbish tip from another? How would you like to spend your weekend? Going to the football, lying in bed, rolling round the shops? Or rummaging around in old baked bean tins and rotting copies of the London paper, for a few scratched CDs? Are these people looking for a needle in haystack, 20 million haystacks in a needle or 20 million needles in 20 million haystacks in a or er, a piece of hay in 20 million needles... Either way somewhere in there, there’s some kind of metaphor for the general craziness of the... continue reading 1st December 2007
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Reclaiming evidence
Last week I argued that both the government and the opposition are struggling to reconcile ‘following the evidence’ about what works with reforms designed to give those running/working in public services more freedom to make their own decisions. Does evidence trump information, or visa versa? Estelle Morris nails the argument here:
continue reading on 27th November 2007 - Engaging with Europe Last week the European Commission published its draft annual progress reports on accession candidates, including Croatia and Turkey. However, despite not attracting much attention outside the candidate countries and the EU itself, these reports are still the EU’s most important tool in accession negotiations – and the question of whether the accession process is effective is of vital importance to the future of the EU. Could this mean it may be time to start taking notice of what is going on in Brussels and engaging with the crucial questions that will need to be answered if the EU is to successfully reform itself into an entity that can deliver on its promises? continue reading 27th November 2007
- Demos in the Deccan Herald Our event at IIM Bangalore last week has been written up in the Deccan Herald by Rajeev Gowda. continue reading on 27th November 2007 in The Atlas of Ideas
- A passage to India Last week, the Atlas of Ideas came full circle in India, when we presented the findings at a one-day conference in Delhi. The event, hosted by the National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies, brough together policy-makers and scientists from India, China, Korea and the UK to explore ways of increasing scientific collaboration. continue reading on 26th November 2007 in The Atlas of Ideas
- The Commonwealth Gets Teeth The Commonwealth Heads of Government, currently meeting in Uganda, have for once made a good decision. They have (temporarily) booted Pakistan out of the Commonwealth because of the terrible political situation there.So what? You might say. Isn't the Commonwealth just an anacronistic waste of time? Well, for the UK it might not compete with our membership of the G8 or our permanent seat on the UN Security Council. But for many member states of the Commonwealth and their leaders, membership... continue reading on 23rd November 2007
- Making sure no one is Leffe behind Having nearly been trampled into the flat ground by an unofficially estimated 35, 000 Belgians marching for national unity in Brussles last Sunday, it got me thinking whether there are any lessons that we can learn from events over there in order to inform the debate surrounding ‘Britishness’. continue reading 23rd November 2007
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The new politics of personal information
We've been telling anyone that will listen for a long time that personal information is really important. In the past couple of days it seems like we, and people like the Information Commissioner, have been proved right. The story details some terrible mistakes, but we can't stop with the bad news story. This is an opportunity to open the serious debate we need about how and why personal information is so valuable.
That's a debate we're calling for in the forthcoming pamphlet FYI: The new politics of personal information, which we're launching on 7th December. continue reading on 22nd November 2007 in For Your Information