Duncan O'Leary
Duncan works on projects looking at public services, skills and work.
- Who are you? Mitt Romney has pulled out of the race to be the Republican nominee, leaving the field clear for John McCain. What are the lessons? Real Clear Politics has a breakdown of the Romney campaign, looking in detail at who he attracted and who he alienated. I prefer this much simpler explanation: the reason he lost to McCain was that he succumbed to an idea that McCain didn’t: continue reading on 8th February 2008
- Listen up Just a quick post to let everyone know that the recordings from the launch of the Demos pamphlet Making it Personal are now up on the website. Charlie Leadbeater gives an overview of the pamphlet before each of the other speakers responds. There was a great line-up and each talk only lasts for about ten mins. If you're going to listen to one person, i recommend Dame Denise Platt - she was brilliant. continue reading on 4th February 2008
- Comment is free, but some are less abusive than others Good to see that the Guardian is getting a little more web 2.0 with its comment moderation over on Comment is free. The site has lots to offer, but the comment streams tend to be 50% comment, 50% abuse. Which is a shame, because it tends to damage the quality of debate on there. continue reading on 28th January 2008
- Groundblog day I don’t know why I keeping blogging about school choice, but I can’t help it. Today Matthew D’Ancona writes over on the Spectator blog that the announcement yesterday on school admissions is ‘an old fashioned public sector rationing system doing its bleak work’. continue reading on 17th January 2008 Comments (2)
- Battle of the 'isms This was the most interesting thing I read over the weekend. It’s a piece looking at the furore going on in Australia over an alleged racist remark in an international cricket match. The accused player has now offered his defence: he says it was a comment about another player’s wife, not about his race. So, asks the article, why is this a defence? Which ‘isms have become acceptable? continue reading on 14th January 2008 Comments (2)
- The meaning of modernisation The Times’ Comment Central is one of my favourite blogs and I enjoy Daniel Finkelstein’s writing, but something irks me about this post on welfare reforms. continue reading on 8th January 2008 Comments (3)
- 2008: the year of decisions I know everyone's supposed to be fed up at this time of year but I'm not. I reckon this is one of the biggest, most interesting years for politics for a long time. Here’s why: continue reading on 3rd January 2008
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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 - Evidence vs Information Here’s a question. Who knows best about how to teach children to read: teachers and headteachers, or the government? And here’s another question: who knows best about how to keep discipline in schools: teachers and headteachers or the government? They are serious questions, but one that policy still fails to answer. continue reading on 19th November 2007 Comments (2)
- 'Power to the people' - but how..? I wonder if David Cameron has prompted an interesting debate this morning – not about council tax and local referendums, but about the politics of power. The question for the Right and the Left (pdf), is whether it is localism or marketisation of services that is best at giving people real power over their own lives. continue reading on 13th November 2007 Comments (1)