It’s Friday. It’s 3.30pm. It’s time for a nice entertaining post about the character of local government. Oh! Here’s one – on a blog that’s generally worth keeping an eye on. Along with the Glum Councillors tumblog, we’re seeing the culture of local government being ever-so-slightly lightened and humanised by the blogosphere.
Posts under ‘Seen elsewhere’
Social capital and genocide
Once again, Stumbling and Mumbling relays a potentially huge insight here, as part of a wider post on how pogroms of various kinds can leave a lasting mark upon the place that they happened in: “When we compare the poorest with the richest nations, it is hard to conclude that social capital can produce less [...]
Swedenise us!
I was very sad to hear – via Slugger – of the passing of ‘Horseman’ – one of the better (anonymous) bloggers that I have in my RSS feed. Being busy, I missed his last posting on his Ulster’s Doomed! blog – a terrifically good one at that. Writing about our image of politicians, Horseman points [...]
Is the milk out of the bottle?
Apologies for the very light posting here. Normal service will be resumed shortly – hopefully. In the meantime, can I direct you over to this post over at Left Foot Forward – well worth a read: “The election results show a total fragmentation of the political landscape. They produced, what we might call, a horrific [...]
Democracy on trial
Just a quick one: Make sure you don’t miss Radio 4′s ‘Democracy On Trial‘ series, hosted by Michael Portillo. It’s worth catching. That’s all. Carry on with what you were doing.
The importance of place – a personal mashup of Richard Florida and Wikinomics
I’ve just finished reading Who’s Your City by Richard Florida and, in short, it strikes me as intuitively about right. The essence of the book is that where you live is as important a choice as what your job is or who your partner is. Additionally Florida argues that the creative economy is making the [...]
Valituskuoro – the ‘complaints choir’
One of the best comments I’ve found under one of my blog posts a while ago (it was about whinging in comments boxes) said… “Philosophers have sought to understand the world. The point is to complain about it.” Here, Peter Levine has a nice post up about the ‘complaints choir‘ in Chicago.
Another perspective
There’s been quite enough sensible earnest commentary on how Data.gov.uk will transform policy and help us all join in describing problems. Here’s the Daily Mash’s alternative take. (via @stevemoore4good)
A few words on governance
Local government governance guru Peter Keith-Lucas has an article in this week’s Local Government Lawyer assessing the current state of governance in local councils. It’s a good read – expert but not too technical. Keith-Lucas has plagues to put on the houses of both parties: the Labour party for watering down the proper role of [...]
Glum councillors
As the silly season draws to a close (it is Friday as well), those nice people over at the internet have brought the ultimate in municipal-porn-meets-pavement-politics: the Glum Councillors. For some time, I’ve thought that the LGA could prove it’s worth to the nation by doing a Calender Girls type fundraising exercise for charity featuring photos [...]
