Second Edition
Editor’s Letter
Editor’s Letter
Since the Heywood Quarterly launched in June 2024, the pace of political change across the western world has been frenetic. This year has been the largest democratic exercise in world history, with four billion citizens making their voices heard. Voters in both the United…
In conversation with… Lord (Terry) Burns
In this summary of an extensive discussion in the autumn, Peter McDonald talks to the former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury about responding to crises, working with Ministers, solving problems and other reflections from a multifaceted career
Terry Burns was only just on time for our…
The Risks of Accountability Sinks
Donald Marshall reviews The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Machines Make Terrible Decisions, and How the World Lost its Mind by Dan Davies
Dan Davies’ book opens with a memorable, and horrifying, story. In 1999 a shipment of 440 squirrels arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport…
Now is the Time to Think Ahead
James Ancell, Head of Futures and Foresight, Joint Data and Analysis Centre, offers practical steps for civil servants to focus more on the longer term
My partner and I are planning a wedding. Being an analyst, I began with a spreadsheet of costs, possible venues, potential guests (colour…
The Truth about SpAds
Peter Cardwell reviews Tales Of The Unelected by Dan Corry
Most senior officials in Whitehall and beyond have some understanding of what special advisers (SpAds) actually do – but more junior civil servants often see them as a remote or alien species. Myths develop about these…
How to Make English Devolution Work
Understanding the Greater Manchester model will help Whitehall deliver its priorities, says John Wrathmell
Among the first guests invited by the new Prime Minister to Downing Street after the July general election were England’s regional Mayors. Sir Keir Starmer told them he wanted to “put more…
Let’s make mutualisation the new ‘third way’
Sharon White, until recently chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, says imaginative ownership models can improve our public services
Poll after poll shows that what the public most want from their politicians is public services that work. Local schools offering outstanding education. A GP…
Has the OBR experiment been worthwhile?
Robert Chote, its first full time Chairman, explains how the UK’s Budget watchdog came about, and examines some of the critiques it has faced
When applications were invited to chair the Office for Budget Responsibility in the summer of 2010, I consulted two distinguished former Treasury officials….
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