Broadly, the Conservative Party are proposing a greater degree of operational co-operation with neighbouring councils in order to earn the right to retain more of their Council Tax revenues. In speaking to the proposals, Eric Pickles is clear that this would not involve any changes to political structures, or any reductions in the number of [...]
Posts from ‘December, 2008’
A local and republican 2009?
I’m never sure whether think-pieces work when the audience is on holiday. Personally, the old adage about getting a busy person to help when you need something doing can be adapted here: If you want to get people’s attention with a new idea, don’t pick a time when they are relaxing to pitch it. If [...]
Mapping the blogosphere
From a really fascinating article, just one gem: “Intriguingly, different linguistic communities seem to have very different blogospheric topologies. The English-language blogosphere appears as a knotty, fibrous mesh, while Scandinavian and Japanese blogs map as something more closely resembling a blotchy Jackson Pollock painting. Russian blogs, by contrast, seem to be heavily clustered in dispersed [...]
"The public are wrong"
It’s a view that doesn’t get much support amongst the blogosphere, but there is a Parliamentary perspective upon democracy that is rarely advanced or defended. Listening to the BBC’s Moral Maze programme – this week’s question “Can there be too much democracy?” (you will need to hurry – it’s not archived and will only be [...]
Local Referendums – coming to a town hall near you?
Well, we knew it was coming – here: “New proposals to make it easier to get local leaders to hold a referendum on their leadership structure, putting communities firmly in control of their town and council, has been published for consultation by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.” It is particularly interesting that these votes will be [...]
The Secret Guide to Social Media
A few years ago, if your house was being visited by the constabulary, and they found a copy of ‘The Anarchist Cookbook’ with it’s various recipes for bombs, their inspection would immediately become more thorough, and your chances of avoiding a few hours ‘helping the police with their enquiries’ would diminish to zero. Here’s a [...]
Top 'real world' read-write applications of 2008
There’s a good deal of useful stuff here for anyone with an interest in new conversational applications. The three that stand out for me are…. PatientsLikeMe TeachStreet OpenCongress The others are worth thinking about though. Mint, for example – in a year when finance-literacy is becoming very relevant indeed – aggregates a lot of personal [...]
New rules on local government publicity?
If ever a review were overdue, it’s the one that Hazel Blears has just announced (though it was heavily trailed in the ‘Communities in Control’ White Paper) into the rules that determine what publicity councils can and can’t do. I’ve visited approximately 100 local authorities in the UK, trying to persuade councils to help councillors [...]
Visualisations
If one argues (and I do) that democracy is at it’s most effective when people who are elected are making decisions, and that those decisions should be made without undue pressure from campaigners and lobbyists, one rapidly finds oneself explaining that this doesn’t mean that the public can have no influence on policy in the [...]
Councillors blogging – looking for encouragement
I’ve promised to help a few Councillors from Welwyn and Hatfield Borough Council start their own blogs. I already manage a project that is intended to get as many of them as possible to manage a small personal website. Anyway, here are the five aspiring bloggers. All have made a start, but you will see [...]
