New Media Elections
Monday, July 30th, 2007Like all, good, political hacks, I loved the last US Presidential campaign. One of the things that made it so fascinating last time was the way in which all of thee campaigns used the internet to both get their message across and to put across far more than would be usually taken up by the [...]
Poverty in the UK Today Podcast
Thursday, July 26th, 2007A recent study by the Joseph Rowntree foundation, comparing wealth and poverty, has found that levels of inequality in the UK are at their highest for 40 years.
For this podcast Political Futures talks to Peter Kenway and Tom MacInnes of the New Policy Institute, compilers of the annual Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion reports. The discussion reflects on [...]
Emergency Planning: A Government Success
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007Not a lot of folks appreciate this, but, since 1997 the government has dramatically increased the amount of funding it has put into emergency planning - and this pre-dates the attacks on the twin towers.
New funds have allowed local and regional agencies to invest in new infrastructure - communications, computers and the like - but [...]
Ken Doing His Homework!
Monday, July 23rd, 2007Apparently Ken Livingstone has been spotted on the tube reading the biography of Boris the Bounder. Good for Ken; get your research in early, But maybe Ken is as worried about the celebrity thing as I am.
Still, it should make for some sharp and humorous comments from our favourite elected Mayor.
Boris and the Culture of Celebrity: no, surely not?
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007I’m just as bemused at most people about Boris Johnson’s attempt to become Mayor of London. And after watching David Cameron’s interviews on the subject there can be little doubt that he thinks this is a wonderful wheeze. There’s not much I can add to the mass of coverage this has already generated, but I [...]
Tory Culture Policy ….
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007Over the last couple of years the dreary and complacent Tory and Lib Dem alliance that currently runs Birmingham, have consistently eat away at community arts budgets. Indeed, they have cut a number of very high profile events that drew in huge audiences, events like the Party in the Park which was a great hit [...]
PF Interactive
Friday, July 20th, 2007This short Podcast tells you a little more about this podcast project, tells you how you can get involved and how newsfeed subscriptions will keep you in touch with new programmes and new developments.
An Excellent Night’s Work
Friday, July 20th, 2007Congratulations Mr. T.W and his team. How long for DCC I wonder?
Good Luck Today Folks
Thursday, July 19th, 2007Good luck to everyone involved in the Bye-Election at Ealing Southall today. I see that Cameron is sneaking in and out regularly but I trust that Commander Tom Watson and his team will see him off in style.
There is, of course, also a Bye Election at Sedgefield, but I doubt we need to worry about [...]
Metronet Goes Down: But What About the Rest?
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007With Metronet going down there will be a lot of people, around the country, quietly worrying about their services.
PFI programmes are monstrously complicated beasts, take a very long time to construct and are still fraught with uncertainty. I’ve been involved in a number of PFI schemes, the first of which started to be constructed almost [...]
