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The article presents information on various governmental or parliamentary publication often referred to as "Grey Papers". Such documents are part of the common currency of conversation. However, in practice it is very difficult to define these terms and one finds that in much of governmental publishing the color of the covers of the document is less significant than the greyness over the meaning attached to the various forms of publication. One believes that one knows the difference between White Papers, Green Papers and their kin, but under close examination they often tend to merge to a uniform grey. A White Paper, indicates the broad lines of legislation the Government intend to introduce and, very often, of executive action that will be taken. A Green paper is a white paper that is not ripe yet. Green Papers announce tentative proposals for discussion.

This article considers the levelling‐up agenda in the UK, examining the Johnson government's original proposals to tackle regional and local inequality and its continuation under new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak following the short‐lived premiership of Liz Truss. The 2022 Levelling Up in the United Kingdom White Paper is notable for the frank and wholesale critique it provides of previous governments'—both Tory and Labour—efforts to address the pressing issue of geographic inequality. The assessment was that a pattern of ad hoc and incoherent reforms needed to be replaced by a stable, long term and system‐wide approach to change. Yet, under Johnson, Truss and now Sunak, policy churn is continuing, with an approach that falls short in following the lessons set out in the White Paper. We provide a detailed analysis of the government's critique of past reforms, the lessons it has set out and why its reform programme is likely to repeat past failings. Crucially, the approach leaves the structure of central government almost untouched, with substantive reforms instead focussed at the local governance level. We argue the government's programme perpetuates the 'power‐hoarding' tendencies of the Westminster model, a key bulwark against meaningfully addressing the UK's spatial inequality problem. We conclude that the levelling‐up agenda, missions and targets are unlikely to be met under Rishi Sunak, reflecting the endemic nature of short‐termism and centralisation of power in the UK's public policy approach. We then consider the approach of Starmer's Labour Party to levelling up and the issues it needs to confront if it forms the next government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the collection of papers presented at a conference on transport policy held by the Nuffield Foundation in 1976. In his introductory article, Christopher Foster explains that over the past twenty years there has been an almost unceasing demand from many diverse and frequently opposed quarters for changes in transport policy. When there is so much change, and talk of change, a major service researchers can provide is to make their best estimates of the factual consequences of such changes. In sharp contrast, Richard Pryke argues in his first paper that people are more mobile now than at any time in the past. He neglects to question, however, as Mayer Hillman does in a careful reply, whether the fact that people travel more can be regarded as a benefit.

Public inquiries are an important phenomenon in modern British society, often used to address controversial or difficult issues of major concern to policy makers, the media and the public. Although people often comment adversely on how costly inquiries are and how long they take, inquiry methods are rarely discussed, let alone critiqued or challenged. However, from a social sciences perspective, inquiry methods, processes and outputs are often at odds with accepted standards for research methods. This paper discusses this divergence and the implications for how we should regard the inquiry as a way of knowing, or learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the White Paper on Film Policy in Great Britain. Proposed changes that would bring to an end the post-war era of government-film industry relations; Provisions of the film policy; State support system for the film industry.

Recently published research contends that concern about immigration is weakening the British political system by creating distrust in the elites and institutions in this system. Some may challenge this finding because the public opinion data used to illustrate this relationship is limited to the period of the recent Labour government, raising the possibility that it was an artefact of that era and thus may no longer hold. Using the most recent round of the European Social Survey (2010-11), this paper investigates whether this finding holds in the present era. The findings indicate that under the current Conservative-Liberal Democratic government, concern about immigration is still related to negative perceptions of the political system. This finding, along with those reported in previous research, points to potentially serious negative consequences for the functioning of the British political system, which are discussed in the concluding section of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public care is widely perceived to be failing children, and this belief is at the heart of government proposals set out in the Care Matters white paper. This article argues that on the contrary, research tends to find that children's welfare improves while they are in care. The reasons for the negative perception of care are considered and it is argued that care should be seen as a positive option for children in families experiencing severe difficulties and as a form of family support rather than an alternative option. This would move the United Kingdom toward a more European model for the place of care for children in difficult family situations, rather than an American model which focuses on minimizing the use of public care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the politics in health care reforms in Great Britain. The state of the National Health Scheme had become an issue in the 1987 general election. Fundamental reform of the service, however, was not an election issue. The government were not committed to such reform, and the government's critics were largely concerned with the level of funding of the service. Only the alliance parties made radical proposals, endorsing aversion of the internal market idea. During 1987 and 1988 the NHS came to be perceived as being in a state of crisis by opposition politicians, commentators, the media and people working in it.

This article discusses the role of Area Manpower Boards under the Manpower Services Commission and critically analyzes their functioning. In May 1981, the Manpower Services Commission published A New Training initiative: A Consultative Document which identified Britain's future training needs and established three objectives. Over the next six months, the MSC received more than a thousand consultative papers from various organizations and individuals to which it responded by issuing an "Agenda for Action" which called for a youth training scheme to cover all school leavers. The British government offered twelve months education, training and work experience to all 16 and 17 year olds. Non-employed trainees can be covered by collective bargaining (including wages); and unions--through their representation on Area Manpower Boards--have the power to block schemes.

Political science has paid scant attention to the way that citizens judge public policy, assuming that citizens do so, or should do so, in ways familiar to academics themselves, depending upon which of the various schools of thought they endorse. This paper argues that approaching citizens' judgement realistically requires attention to political psychology. Indeed, our conception of citizen judgement can be enriched by attention to research and theory in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. That work emphasises that much judgement occurs spontaneously and very rapidly, that it is involuntary and non-semantic and that it depends upon the emotional impact of experience rather than conscious weighing of situations against explicit standards of assessment such as science, self-interest or moral theory. A moral psychology for public life is sketched out, with implications for judgment by politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy eating is high on the government's agenda in current times and to all intents and purposes the media appears to have played a crucial role in putting it there. While media focus is no doubt intense and playing a vital role in public education (take Jamie Oliver's 2005 Channel 4 documentary, ‘School dinners’, for example), the question that lies at the heart of this article, is whether the media has led the government agenda on healthy eating and school dinners as appears to be the case. A close examination of the evidence suggests otherwise: government policy was already well set before the media began to show a concerted interest and hence its influence on policy-making is more limited than might be expected. Rather than setting agendas per se, the media's role has been to refine and energise existing policy areas and to facilitate implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When New Labour came to power in 1997, the party's manifesto had little to say about rural policy, beyond a proposal to allow a free vote to ban hunting with dogs and a commitment to establish a right to roam—essentially ‘old Labour’ and symbolic issues. However, in its early years the Blair government became drawn more heavily into rural policy reform and increasingly came to see rural issues as a territory on which its grand project of national renewal and modernisation could be played out. This article reviews the rise and fall of rural policy under New Labour, and charts how the aftermath of the 2001 foot and mouth disease crisis eventually saw rural issues marginalised within government. It shows how the Blair governments’ strange and unexpected excursion into reforming rural and agricultural policy provides a case study of the rise and fall of modernisation more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aviation expansion and the construction of a third runway at Heathrow airport is firmly back on the political agenda. Yet, the stark fact remains that a growing list of British governments has been unable to engineer a partial or temporary policy settlement in aviation. In exploring the challenges of reaching such a settlement, this article characterises the shifting and contested political and policy contexts of UK aviation. It begins by exploring the ‘wicked issue’ of aviation expansion before foregrounding how the politics of air travel is riven by competing policy frames, fragmented governance and the absence of gatekeepers. It argues that the Davies Commission and its efforts to remove aviation from the domain of partisan politics provided little more than a temporary respite for government. It thus concludes by questioning whether the May government's expansion proposals will succeed this time around, outlining how the contributions in this collection address the themes and issues of this overriding policy puzzle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a rejoinder to the article `The October 1993 Coal Crisis and UK Energy Policy,' by M. Parker and J. Surrey published in a 1993 issue of the periodical `The Political Quarterly.' Accelerated decline in Great Britain's coal industry; Failure to identify what constitutes intervention; Privatization of the electricity supply industry.

The author discusses social and economic policies in Great Britain as of April 1964, arguing that social services have not been increased to match advancements in living standards. Topics include the health, education, and transportation services provided by a welfare state, economic conditions and growth in Great Britain, capacity bottlenecks, and a Government White Paper on Public Expenditure. Challenges in hospital construction, income distribution, and educational expansion are described. Taxation policy, public spending policy, and government planning are emphasized.

The UK government is responsible for meeting legally binding decarbonisation objectives, but it is not on track to meet its next Climate Change Act targets or the goal of Net Zero by 2050. The IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report is a stark reminder of the importance of all countries, particularly those historically responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, devising and implementing the innovative and just policy solutions required to lower emissions. Within this context, this article explores the UK's sustainable energy policy making, and why it is not on course to meet targets, through the lens of government‐business relations. It analyses government policy capacity, incumbent energy company influence, and how complex relations and dependencies have affected sustainable policy (non‐)decisions and outcomes. It reveals that an over‐reliance on incumbent energy companies in UK energy politics, although understandable given the need to provide affordable and secure energy, has contributed towards insufficient space for cheaper and more just clean energy solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The centre of power in the UK lies in No 10 Downing Street and is surprisingly weak in terms of numbers. This article, written by a former insider, looks at how power is exercised in a variety of ways, some formal, through cabinet and its committees some informal, through the force of personality of the Prime Minister and his team especially his policy unit. It goes on to examine the creation and functioning of the National Economic Council, set up by Gordon Brown in response to the financial and economic crisis of 2007-8. It argues that this was a successful innovation towards a more structured approach that delivered faster policy formation and delivery and created a sense of unity. While it is probably a model that works best in crisis moments, it could be taken forward in other ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Conservative Party's 'levelling up agenda' has been deployed both as a tool for public communication and as a broad motif for the government's policy programme, gaining a great deal of traction as a political message. Levelling up is a vision of a post‐Brexit Britain in which there will be greater state investment, educational opportunity, regional equality, and regional independence. However, this vision invokes a wide range of disparate political ideologies without addressing the underlying tensions between them. It speaks to social democrats about tackling deprivation; it speaks to social liberals about equality of opportunity; it speaks to economic liberals about supporting the free market; and it speaks to conservatives about reuniting the nation. If levelling up develops from a political slogan into a fully‐fledged policy programme, it will become increasingly difficult for the government to manage the ideological tensions inherent in the levelling‐up agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the limited amount of information which the government provides to the public. Inavailability to the parliament of the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) report on Euroflame Holdings; DTI investigations into errant companies from 1979 to 1992; Release of the Euroflame report to the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Wales; Shielding of accountants, self-regulation and market operators from public scrutiny.

Focuses on the British government interparty talks on the constitution of Northern Ireland. Consideration of factor to make the talks possible; Scenario that would take place if the talks fail; Requirement in dealing with democratic society.

Since the 1980s identities have re‐emerged as a powerful factor shaping support for specific public policies, often doing so at the expense of prioritising the interests of future generations. Outside the United States a major causal factor has been the declining ability of many political parties to mobilise support for themselves and their policies. Consequently, considerations derived from the past can be at the expense of future citizens. This article analyses two major policies separated by a century—Prohibition in the US and Brexit. With both, the enacted policies featured limited previous public discussion about their likely consequences. Moreover, in both cases it was a 'hard' version that would be enacted, even though some supporters had favoured more moderate policy options. While not all policies driven by support from particular identities harm future generations, some do. This results from politicians in public utterances previously being insufficiently focussed in detail on the policy's consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overall, if you look at all the jobs and all the wages, not just native jobs and wages, there will be more low-paid work in the economy when there is high immigration of workers into so-called low-skilled jobs. This government sees immigration policy, along with the minimum wage, as the easiest lever to pull to counter low pay and poor conditions. LONG BEFORE Boris Johnson gave his robust view of business opposition to Brexit, the Conservative Party had an ambivalent relationship to business interests. [Extracted from the article]

Hence the importance of Bunting's interviews in the heartlands of care, which often capture the elusive blend of attentive kindness that we know, intuitively, should be the essence of care. Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care, by Madeleine Bunting. In the process, Bunting highlights the overwhelming impediments faced at every level by carers and those in need, resulting in an unprecedented crisis of care. [Extracted from the article]

It was his clever remodelling of SNP fundamentals: austere social democracy should soften towards the Irish model of encouraging private enterprise in a "smart successful Scotland", while sovereignty should still leave Scotland in five "unions" - one of them the "social union" with England. What his vivid history of ideas shows, on the contrary, is how normal a European country Scotland is: late in the field, but examining the option of state independence sensibly and cautiously, as Norwegians or Czechs did in the past. Sillars transferred this "independence in Europe" policy to the Scottish National Party, when the SLP had perished. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract: This article assesses the character, role and outcomes of the Airports Commission. Analysing its workings from September 2012, it evaluates the final recommendations and then charts their subsequent public reception. The article claims that the Airports Commission's endeavours to depoliticise aviation by using ‘reasonable’ methods and impartial judgements—often embodied in Howard Davies himself—have been met with local resistance and political opposition, focussed on the proposal to expand either Heathrow or Gatwick. It exposes how the recourse to expert commissions offers only temporary respite for government responsibility and accountability in the making of hard decisions. It concludes that the inability to secure a binding and acceptable agreement does not just reside at the door of the Airports Commission, but rests also on the failures of political leadership and the ‘missed opportunity’ to articulate a sustainable vision for aviation after the 2010 moratorium on airport expansion in the south‐east of England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general elections of 2017 and 2010 produced hung parliaments in which no single party could command an overall majority; in May 2015 the UK only narrowly avoided that outcome. When a parliament is hung, more than one potential government can be viable, and the constitutional rules that determine who has the first right to form the government can thus have a decisive influence on which government forms. In the past, the UK has applied several potentially contradictory rules (based on conventions and principles), which do not all follow an equally democratic logic. This status quo is problematic because it can generate political controversy and uncertainty, in addition to jeopardising the Monarch's role in the government formation process. A reform that enables parliament to elect the leader who will be tasked with the formation of the next government would resolve these problems and provide constitutional clarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we explore the implications of Brexit for the UK and the EU's development policies and strategic directions, focusing on the former. While it is likely that the operational process of disentangling the UK from the various development institutions of the EU will be relatively straightforward, the choices that lie ahead about whether and how to cooperate thereafter are more complex. Aid and development policy touches on a wide range of interests-security, trade, climate change, migration, gender rights, and so on. We argue that Brexit will accelerate existing trends within UK development policy, notably towards the growing priority of private sector-led economic growth strategies and blended finance tools. There are strong signals that UK aid will be cut, as successive secretaries of state appear unable to persuade a substantial section of the public and media that UK aid and development policy serves UK interests in a variety of ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates on Scottish constitutional reform go hand in hand with discussions of political reform. Its reformers use the image of 'old Westminster' to describe 'control freakery' within government and an adversarial political system. Many thought that the Scottish political system could diverge from the UK, to strengthen the parliamentary system, introduce consensus politics and further Scotland's alleged social and democratic tradition. Yet the experience of devolution suggests that Holyrood and Westminster politics share key features. Both systems are driven by government, making policy in 'communities' involving interest groups and governing bodies, with parliaments performing a limited role and public participation limited largely to elections. The Scottish government's style of policy-making is distinctive, but new reforms are in their infancy and their effects have not been examined in depth. In this context, the article identifies Scotland's ability to make and implement policy in a new way, based on its current trajectory rather than the hopes of reformers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markets are powerful tools for reform in both the public and private realms. But those markets need careful design and stewardship if they are to work to create value rather than simply becoming a mechanism for distributing rents to private investors. SMF Director Ian Mulheirn examines how the social market framework offers the most cogent analysis of recent events and how it can be a vital guide for future policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses how veteran care can be placed at the centre of our understanding of the modern Military Covenant and located as a key issue in contemporary civil-military relations and public policy. Healthcare and welfare provision have become primary manifestations of how the British state fulfils its duty of care towards military personnel. The article aims to present an overview of current provision for veterans of Britain's modern wars and draw conclusions regarding the state's ability to provide short and long-term healthcare and welfare requirements to veterans as part of the Covenant under the rubric of 'Big Society'-inspired policy shifts engendered by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviewing two of the latest reports by social mobility tsar, Alan Milburn and 'social justice' champion, Iain Duncan Smith, the article examines the politics and policy of the Coalition's fairness strategy and the jostling for position that is going on behind the scenes. Whilst continuing to pay lip service to the goal of ending child poverty, the government is seeking to redefine the problem, away from a narrow focus on relative low income. Beneath the rhetoric, the article highlights the close similarities between the 'new' and 'old' approaches, finding that the evidence behind the government's claims is unconvincing. Far from offering a 'step-change' in provision, it concludes that in the new age of austerity the Coalition will struggle to make any positive progress on tackling poverty and improving the relative life chances of disadvantaged children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent rises in food prices represent the 'tip of the iceberg' and a 'canary in the mine' moment for world agriculture. They are underlain by a continuing 'race to the bottom' and speculative process whereby systems of resource production and exploitation are continuing to rely upon 'infinite supply' assumptions and narrow technological solutions to 'feeding the world'. I argue here that these conditions are leading to a dominant policy framing that tends to marginalise diverse and place-based agro-ecological systems by creating a new legitimacy for bio-economic rather than eco-economic solutions. Government and policy-making bodies need to redefine and widen their approaches to agriculture and agri-food in ways that recognise its social, cultural, political and spatially diverse contribution in a post-carbon world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses conflicts between the ideals of transparency and privacy in an information society, using the release of classified information by the website Wikileaks as an example. It focuses on the legal implications of such leaks and their likely impact on public policy. An argument is presented that the activities of Wikileaks could lead to less government transparency, as the danger of leaked documents might impel government officials to leave some official secrets undocumented. The unsuccessful attempts of organizations such as Bank Julius Baer and the Church of Scientology to take Wikileaks to court are also discussed.

The article discusses the effectiveness of the British government's Big Society Policy plan, which emphasizes social responsibility and local community involvement over state control, in terms of its ability to provide citizen empowerment through an examination of decentralized policies on early years services for families and young children in Great Britain. The author explains arguments for the diminishing of "Big Government" in order to empower citizens and charts the development of early years policies by the Labour party government. Other topics include the Conservative party's introduction of payment by results for Sure Start children's centres, local control of funding through the Early Intervention Grant (EIG), and the role of the voluntary sector in educational services.

The article discusses aspects of mutualism in Great Britain's Conservative party's Big Society policy plan, which emphasizes social responsibility and local community involvement over state control, focusing on the plan's emergence, development, implementation, and impact. The author defines mutuals as organisations devoted to the benefit of their members and notes the guiding principles and design of member-owned businesses. The marginalisation of friendly societies is related to the rise of the British welfare state following World War II, and the mutualism of the Labour party government is contrasted with that of the Big Society. Other topics include the policy's implementation by an Office for Civil Society and a 2011 report on the progress of mutual pathfinders in Great Britain.

The article critiques Great Britain's Big Society government policy plan, which seeks to emphasize social responsibility and local communities over state control, focusing on a comparison to former Director of the British Conservative party's Research Department James Douglas' idea of a Third Sector in society paralleling the state and the market. The author notes that the Big Society plan differs from Douglas' idea in its emphasis on neighbourhoods and communities, mutual organisations, and state programs to facilitate voluntarism. Other topics include problems with initiating collective action and establishing neighbourhood identities, charities in the Big Society, and political power in Great Britain.

The concern of this article is to locate the unfolding literature that seeks to explain the present financial crisis into three dimensions of contestability. The major areas of disagreements between various authors include: the role of government; the issues of whether the recession was unavoidable or whether it was inevitable; and the area of ideas and ideals and how economic ideas shaped and influenced the policy process. These explanations include the pragmatists and all that literature that had a time dimension of major actors trying to produce policies that aimed to stabilise the financial markets. These policy makers did not have the benefit of hindsight but were concerned that the financial markets were so fragile that there was no other choice but for governments to intervene. By contrast, there were the market fundamentalists who argued that the pragmatists had got it wrong and were therefore highly critical of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury and tended to blame the recession on government housing policy. Institutionalists have argued that the regulatory system is broken, while structuralists tend to focus on growing income inequalities, the concentration of wealth and how the changing structure explains the recession in the sense that households took the avenue of higher debt on their homes to sustain higher levels of consumption. Finally, there is the Keynesian Collectivist argument that points to the limits of Rational Expectations and Efficient markets. No one really know who is right, but the fierce debate that is emerging is highly important in that each explanation seeks to provide a framework for policy making [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the policies of Great Britain's Labour Party in regards to ownership rights. The author begins by explaining Labour's attachment to a form of stakeholder capitalism, which largely argues for financial sector reform in order to lower the cost of industrial finance. He then goes on to describe Labour's policies on asset-based welfare, which would provide a tax on inheritance that would ultimately benefit the poor. Economic developments related to Britain's income inequality and housing market during Labour's rule are explained as well.

How genuine is the Conservative party's rediscovery of the environment? Would a Conservative government led by David Cameron implement a wide-ranging and progressive environmental policy? This article explores why Cameron has embraced the environment so enthusiastically when Conservative governments have had a poor record of environmental protection and the Conservative party has traditionally shown little interest in the issue. It assesses the impact of Cameron's strategy both on his own party and on the wider world of environmental politics and it evaluates the continuing commitment of the Conservatives to the issue by assessing what kind of policies a future Conservative government might implement. Although Cameron remains committed to the issue and he has already had a positive impact on Labour government policy, he has not yet convinced his party or its supporters, so a future Conservative government would probably represent continuity rather than significant change in environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses the political issues surrounding child care as practiced in Western nations. She notes that governments in Europe, but not the United States, have mandated two features regarding child care, namely provisions for guaranteed maternity leave for working mothers and the possibility of extended absence from work for a male caregiver, if approved by an employer. More liberal child care services offered by continental European countries are contrasted with the comparatively few facilities available to citizens of Great Britain.

The article discusses British government policies concerning entrepreneurship and innovation as of September 2008. It analyzes the significance of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)/entrepreneurship on the British economy, changes in the stock of SMEs, the survival rates of new businesses, and utilizes surveys conducted by the British Centre for Business Research (CBR). The article also discusses links between businesses and universities and the impact of the relationship on innovative activity and policy initiatives.

An essay on how world governments have reacted to economic inequality during the early 21st century is presented. It also focuses upon how the British government has responded to global poverty and inequality, including the establishment of the British Department for International Development (DFID), the allocation of resources, and its financial commitments to scholarly research on economic inequality as of September 2008.

‘Policies of multiculturalism are often criticised for undermining national identities in one of three ways and in this article I suggest why this is questionable and then point to a more plausible relationship between the two. More specifically, I offer a hypothesis which is that policies of multiculturalism change national identities and I argue that this hypothesis is both theoretically plausible and empirically plausible in at least one instance. This argument is made in three stages and in the first of them I explain what I think policies of multiculturalism and national identities are. In the second stage I present my hypothesis and explain why it is theoretically plausible. In the third stage I use new evidence to suggest why my hypothesis is also empirically plausible in at least one instance. In the final stage I show why a sceptic who might doubt whether my hypothesis is plausible in other instances need not do so.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a curious disjunction between the Labour Government's international actions and its domestic policy. Although Tony Blair did much to promote the climate change agenda on the international stage, domestically, with carbon emissions rising again, the Government will fail to meet its target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2010. This article examines the weaknesses in the Labour Government's domestic record and assesses the significance of the recent transformation of climate change politics. Several obstacles to the design and delivery of more effective policies are identified, which can be categorised as either problems of ‘environmental politics’ or ‘environmental governance’. It is argued that the recent politicisation of climate change has overcome some of these obstacles - albeit temporarily - but whether the pressure for further policy measures can be sustained, with a long-term impact on environmental governance, remains uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Blair governments deployed several public service reform strategies. Although many have been effective, they have had limited traction at the ‘hard end’ of disadvantage: entrenched deprivation remains a stubborn feature of the social landscape. Reforms have had limited impact on this deprivation because they expect users to behave either as eager recipients or as informed consumers. But disadvantaged groups rarely emulate the active middle class; instead, they are distrustful of public institutions—even hostile. We need a different reform strategy that does not presuppose these behaviours and which generates new ideas. This ‘venture state’ approach would go beyond commissioning and invest in services that demonstrate the greatest social returns with disadvantaged groups. Like the eponymous capitalist, it would identify a portfolio of high-impact providers that can be scaled or sustained; and it would provide the resources required to do so. Rather than seeking to target its own services with ever greater precision, the venture state would focus on structuring innovation in those services most important for the hard end of disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1990s, after eighteen years of Conservative rule, there was much talk about the prospects for a progressive century. Tony Blair, under the tutelage of Roy Jenkins, made it clear that he wanted to end the schism on the centre-left. Paddy Ashdown saw the same opportunity. Ironically, the electorate's desire to kick out the Conservatives and vote in progressives of any stripe delivered a Labour landslide that made cooperation impossible for Blair and Ashdown. Some progressive policies, notably on the constitution, have been implemented, but the political and intellectual roots to create a progressive century have yet to be properly established. Foreign policy divisions, especially on Iraq, have made this much more difficult. This article looks at the prospects for progressives—under new leadership—up to and after the next election in terms of ideas and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores on the shift in European Union (EU) policy tackled by the leadership of British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the light of earlier pro-European transformation. It entails an interrogation of the criticisms of Prime Minister Blair's approach to Europe that came out from British Labour party leaders, who first acquired the social Europe approach. It also focuses on the different opinions of the debate pertaining the role of EU and how the Labour movement should set about it.

Discusses the author's personal reflections on the establishment of the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission (AEBC) in Great Britain. Comparison of biotechnology commissions in terms of their constitutions, preoccupations and objective; Impact of the legislative framework on the organizational dynamics of biotechnology commissions; Implications of controversies on genetically-modified crops.

Examines how the British Labor government elected in 1997 dealt with the trade-off between the control of drug expenditures in the National Health Service budget and the profitable return to pharmaceutical companies. Set of interdependencies and public policy instruments that form the relationship between the government and the pharmaceutical industry; Crisis in the generic drugs market.

Focuses on the role of local authorities in Great Britain in housing policy during the 1980s. Inefficiency of organizations controlled by elected representatives as suppliers of service; Impact of the passage of the 1988 Housing Act and the 1989 Local Government and Housing Act; Efforts of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in reducing the role of local authorities as providers of homes.