Elected mayors tour
Posts from my tour of the English cities holding referendums on whether they should have executive mayors: Bristol, 5th January 2011 Bristol City Council has had seven changes of leader in eight years....
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Fast Forward
For Progress We must not oppose high-speed rail for opposition’s sake. High Speed Two is Labour’s scheme in origin and conception. Our battle with the Tories should not be on the existing HS2 proposal,...
View ArticleThe mayors show
The Institute for Government and I are quoted in this Economist article Britain’s few elected mayors have mostly worked well. That doesn’t mean other cities will vote for them. GISELA STUART, a Labour...
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Boris and Co hold the keys to prosperity
Originally published in The Times Can you name the leaders of Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds city councils, three of the largest cities in England? No? You are in good company. When I asked the...
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Vote yes for an elected mayor and get the leadership Birmingham deserves
Originally published in the Birmingham Post There was a time when Birmingham was undisputedly the nation’s second city. Nowadays a host of other cities are nipping at its heels. Greater Manchester is...
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Moving the House of Lords from London
My suggestion that a reformed House of Lords should be located in a major city in the midlands or the north has stimulated a big debate. Here are some of the contributions: Let’s move the...
View ArticleBristol City Council’s instability
From yes2mayors.com: My response to remarks made by the departing Leader of Bristol City Council Barbara Janke in her resignation letter: Yet again, Bristol’s unstable city council is undergoing a...
View ArticleWhere next for Elected Mayors?
The advance of elected mayors continues apace, despite the negative votes in city referendums last week. The London mayoral contest dominated May’s local elections. London’s transport, and much else...
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Declinism is back
Originally written for the Financial Times Going South: Why Britain will have a Third World Economy by 2014, by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson, Palgrave Macmillan, £14.99 Declinism is back, and...
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Bringing down England’s Berlin Wall
Written for The Times, 26th June 2012 Yesterday’s announcement that Liverpool College is to become an academy is perhaps the single biggest breach in the Berlin Wall between the private and state...
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