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Liam Booth-Smith

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Let’s scrap election by thirds

Let’s scrap election by thirds

Voters, according to Katie Ghose of the Electoral Reform Society, just don’t think local elections matter. True to form, we…

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Retiring at 75 is worth celebrating

Retiring at 75 is worth celebrating

If you’re under 35 and not a trustafarian or an internet millionaire, did you seriously think you’d be retiring at…

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Bad Behavioural Economics

Bad Behavioural Economics

In their 2008 book Nudge, Thaler and Sunstein dedicate a whole chapter, entitled Objections, to various criticisms of behavioural economics….

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The Evidence Against Interest: David Cameron and children’s services

The Evidence Against Interest: David Cameron and…

Ok, I thought, as I saw the news filter through that the Prime Minister had decided now was the time…

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The Peril of Public Service Oligopoly

The Peril of Public Service Oligopoly

This article comes with a health warning: Share price is not a completely accurate reflection of the real value or…

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What binds the EU and Devolution debates?

What binds the EU and Devolution debates?

In his 1941 essay collection, The Lion and Unicorn, George Orwell remarked that “In England patriotism takes different forms in…

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Tax credits and the productivity puzzle

Tax credits and the productivity puzzle

Being anti tax-credit cuts puts you in a seriously eclectic camp. We have the Labour Party, the new and fragile…

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The Spending Review Cometh

The Spending Review Cometh

Find your nearest stack of recent local government trade magazines and place your hands above them. Can you feel the…

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How big is your impact?

How big is your impact?

There is something altogether tragic about the media furore surrounding the Kids Company charity. Positively Shakespearian. To some their maligned…

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Budget 2015: Councils Need To Pay Special Attention To Productivity

Budget 2015: Councils Need To Pay Special Attention To…

Productivity has been slowing down in the UK for a number of years now (and many other developed nations for…

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Local Government: The Opera

Local Government: The Opera

In the final scenes of Don Giovanni, our titular protagonist is escorted down to the depths of the underworld. His maligned…

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How to Build an INSIGHT Hub

How to Build an INSIGHT Hub

The idea of an ‘Intelligence Hub’ isn’t novel. There have been a range of attempts at creating a function that…

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The Inflection Point Launched Today

The Inflection Point Launched Today

The late political thinker and pollster Philip Gould once remarked that historic moments of change can be marked up as…

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A Commission Too Far?

A Commission Too Far?

The Independent Commission on Local Government Finance is right to call for councils to become financially self-sufficient. It makes a…

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Perspective Matters When Building Something New

Perspective Matters When Building Something New

I hope the LGC Insider, the local government chief-executive-come-silhouetted-columnist, feels better after his Christmas break. His latest offering is bleak…

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