Monthly Archives: May 2009

Word on the street scene

29 May 2009 | Chris Leslie

Joined-up working is crucial if councils are to improve services. This is particularly true for the local environment, where better use of technology and improved management can produce wide benefits. Read more

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Financial futures

29 May 2009 | John Berriman

Public sector finance directors face competing demands and ever-tighter budgets. They will need to improve leadership skills, address culture change and offer more insight into business performance. Read more

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Sound and fury

29 May 2009 | Judy Hirst

Amid all the sturm und drang over cleaning up politics, and ahead of the June 4 local and European elections, politicians are competing to demonstrate their power-to-the-people credentials. Read more

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They think it’s all over

29 May 2009 | David Lipsey

Some twenty years ago, David Owen’s Social Democratic Party was wound up after the party finished behind the Monster Raving Loony Party in a by-election. Read more

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Report to teacher

22 May 2009 | John Dunford

School league tables are out of fashion, to be replaced by scorecards that will judge schools on more balanced and holistic criteria. But the design will need to be carefully thought through first. Read more

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A charitable cause

22 May 2009 | Stuart Etherington

Charities must adapt to survive in these turbulent economic times. They need better financial systems and should consider diversifying their income streams and collaborating with other third sector bodies. Read more

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Chaos theory

22 May 2009 | Mike Thatcher

A future Conservative government would result in ‘chaos’ with all manner of spending cuts, the prime minister claimed this week. Read more

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Keeping an eye on the second house

22 May 2009 | Peter Hetherington

Earlier this year, as the furore over parliamentary expenses was gaining momentum, I visited one of a diminishing number of MPs who can still claim a working-class background. Read more

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Can we prosper without growth?

15 May 2009 | Reader letters

Anna Coote’s article (‘Growth defects’, April 10—17) is a valuable contribution to the issues now facing the global economy. Read more...

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Waste of money

15 May 2009 | Reader letters

Your news story, ‘Bill for Manchester waste PFI scheme hits £4.7bn’, states that the ‘rise (in cost) was caused mainly by the increased cost of finance and greater transfer of risk to the contractor’ (April 17—23). Can some bright spark tell us where, in the council’s accounts, this cost of risk would have explicitly appeared had the project not been financed under the Private Finance Initiative?

David Cranston, Newcastle upon Tyne Read more...

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