Duncan O'Leary
Senior Researcher
Duncan works on projects looking at public services, skills and work.
- The failure of market failure John Kay has an good article in Prospect this month, presumably based on his book The Truth About Markets, which I have never got round to reading. He argues that seeing state intervention purely through the prism of market failure risks leading us to an impoverished view of politics, democracy and collective decision-making. It’s a relatively long one and is hidden behind the subscription wall, so here are some his key points: continue reading on 14th August 2007
- They're all the same etc etc This is pretty good - tells you where all the candidates stand in the US presidential running, on some of the issues at least... continue reading on 13th August 2007
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Reforming public service reform
There is a bit of a debate bubbling under about public services at the moment, which will be worth watching over the next year or so. The Tories are arguing that the government is subtly rowing back on the Blairite reform agenda – and that only they can be trusted to see it through.
To me this is interesting on two levels.continue reading on 6th August 2007 Comments (1) - Mill: timeless or timed out? Roy Hattersley has a provocative peice in the Guardian today, in which he argues that J.S. Mill’s version of liberalism is out of date. His two key points are: continue reading on 6th August 2007 in The politics of public behaviour Comments (1)
- Home and Away I'd forgotten how slow news is in August. If you're struggling for something to read today, Matthew d'Ancona has an interesting piece on the intellectual genesis of Gordon Brown's 'hearts and minds' approach to counter-terrorism over on Comment is Free. d'Ancona argues that Brown perceives lots of parallels with the Cold War. People may also have missed Brown's own article for the Washington Post, where he sets out his formulation that the special relationship is based not just on shared interests or shared history, but shared values. Partly political positioning, but still worth a read. continue reading on 2nd August 2007
- Daily reading - advice wanted Here’s a question: can anyone recommend me a good left-wing blog or two to add to my daily reading? At the moment i tend to visit Comment Central, the Spectator’s Coffee House blog, and Iain Dale – all of which are very readable but also come from a right-wing world-view. More balance needed. I also visit Comment is Free, which has its own role. But as the name suggests it’s more of an aggregation of comment peices, rather than the up-to-the-minute, often... continue reading on 31st July 2007 Comments (6)
- I don't believe it This to me is incredible. As in literally. I don’t believe how seriously it is being taken. I woke up this morning to the sound of Radio 4 explaining how the alchohol licensing laws look like they’ve failed. Then i listened further and realised that this is one study of one hospital. And then it occurred to me that this is 18 months into the change in the law. continue reading on 19th July 2007 Comments (1)
- Ken vs Boris Boris Johnson is standing as a Conservative candidate for London Mayor. This should be fascinating (assuming he wins the candidacy) - both him and Ken Livingstone have made (political) careers through carving out reputations as anti-politician figures. It's always foolish to make predictions, so here's mine: the candidate that looks the most like a politician from now onwards will win. continue reading on 16th July 2007
- The album formerly sold by... I was bemused watching the news yesterday. Apparently Prince has ‘insulted’ record stores by giving his album away for free with the Mail on Sunday. Now unless this is a comment on the choice of newspaper i don’t get it: did music stores collectively do him a favour in his early career, or did they just sell his records because they were worth selling? And isn’t his own album his to give away? I’m guessing Prince fans aren’t feeling all that insulted right now as they sit at home listening to the album. Or am i missing something..? continue reading on 16th July 2007 Comments (5)
- The Politics of Public Behaviour seminars, 10th July and 19th July Just a quick post to flag up two roundtable seminars that we are running on The Politics of public behaviour. The blurb and details for the seminars are below – drop me an email if you would like to come along and i'll add you to the list. continue reading on 27th June 2007