Dusting down the cautious welcome: Initial reflections on the devolution white paper
Phil Swann When I was director of strategy and communications at the LGA I was frequently criticised, by the late professor John Stewart among others, for issuing press releases “cautiously welcoming” one Blairite initiative or another. The criticism was probably justified, but I would definitely have deployed that phrase in response to the government’s recently … Continue reading Dusting down the cautious welcome: Initial reflections on the devolution white paper

How the ‘Make a Difference, Work for Your Local Council’ campaign aims to help councils address the local government recruitment crisis
Cllr Abi Brown OBE The successful recruitment and retention of skilled professionals in local government has long been a challenge for the sector. Given the impact of the pandemic, a significant shortage of staff in several key delivery areas, increased demand on services, together with being the lowest paid part of the public sector, capacity … Continue reading How the ‘Make a Difference, Work for Your Local Council’ campaign aims to help councils address the local government recruitment crisis

Local Democracy in Crisis?
Peter Hetherington Battered by fourteen years of austerity, is local government losing its once-proud standing and status? Probably. For a start, It’s no longer as ‘local’ as it should be. And it certainly isn’t ‘government’ as we once knew it. These days, we sometimes tend to lump ‘democracy’ and ‘crisis’ together in a global context, … Continue reading Local Democracy in Crisis?

The Little Black Book of the Populist Right
Jon Bloomfield The spectre of the Populist Right haunts our politics: Farage and Trump, Orban and Le Pen. Why and how has this reactionary movement managed to redraw the political map from Warsaw via Workington to Wisconsin? Co-written with playwright David Edgar, our Little Black Book of the Populist Right is a crucial analysis of … Continue reading The Little Black Book of the Populist Right