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Editor’s Letter

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...
The Risks of Accountability Sinks

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...
Now is the Time to Think Ahead

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...
The Truth about SpAds

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.    ...