Since 2010, the Party has a truly terrible record of retaining its reformers – especially those capable of understanding and reshaping the structures of government.
It’s vital that on education, policing and infrastructure, as much clarity is given as possible to departments as possible in terms of long-term funding.
It was promised “in our first year”. Instead, there will be mini-commissions, and a push to reform a Government bugbear: judicial review.
“Dom is a decentraliser,” we were told. “But he’s resistant to decentralising to people who he thinks aren’t up to the job.”
“I would urge you to ensure the Treasury as an institution retains as much credibility as possible.”
“Bad management” or “the wrong skills” or “incompetent people” are held up as the root cause of bad government.My central gripe is that I doubt this is true.
This new government seems to want to concentrate its energies on giving Britain a cutting edge. Will it succeed where others have failed?
In some campaigns, the end result is overwhelmingly likely before a stump has been erected. This is not one of those occasions.
He’s right that such data is public, even if in private hands. But the route he has taken to try to obtain it is full of difficulties.
Governing is harder than campaigning – and doing so with next to no majority in an emerging constitutional crisis is another order altogether.
Jon Davis and John Rentoul’s new book contains valuable material, but cannot efface Iraq, or the former Prime Minister’s self-righteousness.
Plus: Which of Hancock’s Slags should I liaise with? I’m not known as “Uncle Herod” for nothing. And: Here’s hoping 2019 is happier than 2018.
Andrew Gimson’s article on this site yesterday was wrong about its condition. The quality of SpAds that it produces is still high.
Ministers like Amber Rudd have great difficulty finding able SpAds because the Conservative Research Department, which used to train them, has been destroyed.
They’re an easy target for criticism, but SpAds make all the difference to the Government’s performance and the Party’s prospects.