The Labour Party and Whitehall

The Labour Party and Whitehall PDF Author: Kevin Theakston
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781138325852
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
First published in 1992. In this lively and controversial book, Kevin Theakston examines the Yes, Minister-style argument popularised by Tony Benn and Richard Crossman that the civil service obstructs Labour government policies. He argues that in fact the Labour party's problems and failures in office are largely political in origin. The book surveys the development of socialist thinking about Whitehall, and examines the claim of a Labour MP in 1979 that 'It is as if Labour in office has now lost all stomach for administrative reform.' Theakston looks at the effectiveness of Labour's various reform schemes, raising important issues such as politicisation and power in the civil service, Whitehall management, elitism in civil service recruitment, and secrecy and 'open government'. This book will appeal to researchers and students of British politics, public administration, and history, as well as to all those with an interest in Whitehall reform, or in Labour Party politics.

The Labour Party and Whitehall

The Labour Party and Whitehall PDF Author: Kevin Theakston
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781138325852
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in 1992. In this lively and controversial book, Kevin Theakston examines the Yes, Minister-style argument popularised by Tony Benn and Richard Crossman that the civil service obstructs Labour government policies. He argues that in fact the Labour party's problems and failures in office are largely political in origin. The book surveys the development of socialist thinking about Whitehall, and examines the claim of a Labour MP in 1979 that 'It is as if Labour in office has now lost all stomach for administrative reform.' Theakston looks at the effectiveness of Labour's various reform schemes, raising important issues such as politicisation and power in the civil service, Whitehall management, elitism in civil service recruitment, and secrecy and 'open government'. This book will appeal to researchers and students of British politics, public administration, and history, as well as to all those with an interest in Whitehall reform, or in Labour Party politics.

Over to You, Mr Brown

Over to You, Mr Brown PDF Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745642225
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Labour stands at a decisive point in its history. A change of leadership can help reinvigorate the party, but winning a fourth term of government will be impossible unless Labour's ideological position and policy outlook are thoroughly refurbished. What form should these innovations take?

The Labour Party and Whitehall

The Labour Party and Whitehall PDF Author: Kevin Theakston
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429833008
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
First published in 1992. In this lively and controversial book, Kevin Theakston examines the Yes, Minister-style argument popularised by Tony Benn and Richard Crossman that the civil service obstructs Labour government policies. He argues that in fact the Labour party’s problems and failures in office are largely political in origin. The book surveys the development of socialist thinking about Whitehall, and examines the claim of a Labour MP in 1979 that ‘It is as if Labour in office has now lost all stomach for administrative reform.’ Theakston looks at the effectiveness of Labour’s various reform schemes, raising important issues such as politicisation and power in the civil service, Whitehall management, elitism in civil service recruitment, and secrecy and ‘open government’. This book will appeal to researchers and students of British politics, public administration, and history, as well as to all those with an interest in Whitehall reform, or in Labour Party politics.

Leadership in Whitehall

Leadership in Whitehall PDF Author: Kevin Theakston
Publisher: MacMillan
ISBN: 9780333749678
Category : Civil service
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
This study of leadership in the British civil service draws the lessons of how change in central government can be managed and implemented from a series of biographical studies of the acknowledged leaders in the civil service in the 19th and 20th centuries, from Charles Trevelyan, the founder of the modern civil service, to modern Mandarins such as Robert Armstrong and Margaret Thatcher's personal adviser the outsider Sir Derek Rayner. The case studies are linked to the wider themes of leadership and administrative culture in Whitehall, illustrating the patterns of change and continuity over time.

Demolishing Whitehall

Demolishing Whitehall PDF Author: Adam Sharr
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351945254
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
This book is about a lost world, albeit one less than 50 years old. It is the story of a grand plan to demolish most of Whitehall, London’s historic government district, and replace it with a ziggurat-section megastructure built in concrete. In 1965 the architect Leslie Martin submitted a proposal to Charles Pannell, Minister of Public Building and Works in Harold Wilson’s Labour government, for the wholesale reconstruction of London’s ’Government Centre’. Still reeling from war damage, its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century palaces stood as the patched-up headquarters of an imperial bureaucracy which had once dominated the globe. Martin’s plan - by no means modest in conception, scope or scale - proposed their replacement with a complex that would span the roads into Parliament Square, reframing the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The project was not executed in the manner envisaged by Martin and his associates, although a surprising number of its proposals were implemented. But the un-built architecture is examined here for its insights into a distinctive moment in British history, when a purposeful technological future seemed not just possible but imminent, apparently sweeping away an anachronistic Edwardian establishment to be replaced with a new meritocracy forged in the ’white heat of technology’. The Whitehall plan had implications well beyond its specific site. It was imagined by its architects as a scientific investigation into ideal building forms for the future, an important development in their project to unify science and art. For the political actors, it represented a tussle between government departments, between those who believed that Britain needed to discard much of its Victorian and Edwardian decoration in the name of ’professionalization’ and those who sought to preserve its ornate finery. Demolishing Whitehall investigates these tensions between ideas of technology and history, science and art, socialism and el

The Labour Party and Constitutional Reform

The Labour Party and Constitutional Reform PDF Author: P. Dorey
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230594158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Examines the Labour Party's approach to constitutional reforms in historical context, and how these have been pursued more to 'modernize' political institutions, rather that radically transform them. Explains the reasons for this constitutional conservatism, and the debates which specific reform proposals have prompted in the Party.

Broken Heartlands

Broken Heartlands PDF Author: Sebastian Payne
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1529067383
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Broken Heartlands is an essential and compelling political road-trip through ten constituencies that tell the story of Labour’s red wall from Sebastian Payne – an award-winning journalist and Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times. The Times Political Book of the Year A Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail and FT Book of the Year 'Immensely readable' - Observer Historically, the red wall formed the backbone of Labour’s vote in the Midlands and the North of England but, during the 2019 general election, it dramatically turned Conservative for the first time in living memory, redrawing the electoral map in the process. Originally from the North East himself, Payne sets out to uncover the real story behind the red wall and what turned these seats blue. Beginning in Blyth Valley in the North East and ending in Burnley, with visits to constituencies across the Midlands and Yorkshire along the way, Payne gets to the heart of a key political story of our time that will have ramifications for years to come. While Brexit and the unpopularity of opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn are factors, there is a more nuanced story explored in Broken Heartlands – of how these northern communities have fared through generational shifts, struggling public services, de-industrialization and the changing nature of work. Featuring interviews with local people, plus major political figures from both parties – including Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer – Payne explores the significant role these social and economic forces, decades in the making, have played in this fundamental upheaval of the British political landscape. 'Impressive and entertaining' - Sunday Times 'A must-read for anyone who wants to understand England today' - Robert Peston

Routledge Library Editions: The Labour Movement

Routledge Library Editions: The Labour Movement PDF Author: Various
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0429784988
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 13366

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Book Description
This set of 44 volumes, originally published between 1924 and 1995, amalgamates a wide breadth of research on the Labour Movement, including labour union history, the early stages and development of the Labour Party, and studies on the working classes. This collection of books from some of the leading scholars in the field provides a comprehensive overview of the subject how it has evolved over time, and will be of particular interest to students of political history.

People Get Ready!

People Get Ready! PDF Author: Christine Berry
Publisher: OR Books
ISBN: 1682191982
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour stands on the brink of power, promising a fundamental re-ordering of British politics. But what, in practice, will this entail? How can a radical government stand up to an establishment that is hostile to any significant redistribution of wealth and power? People Get Ready!dives into the nitty gritty of what’s needed to bring about transformative change. Unlike a decade ago, the left’s problem is no longer a shortage of big ideas. Inside and outside the Labour Party, an agenda for new forms of public and community ownership is taking shape. Today the biggest danger facing the left is lack of preparedness—the absence of strategies that can make these ideas a reality. People Get Ready! draws on previous attempts at radical change, from the election of Labour at the end of the Second World War and the progressive early days of Mitterrand’s presidency in France, to Tony Benn’s battles with Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher’s icy insistence that there was no alternative to free markets. These stories highlight the importance of knowing your allies and, even more, your enemies, of being ready to deal with sabotage and resistance from the highest levels, of being bold enough to transform the structures of government, and of having a mass movement that can both support the leadership and hold it to its radical programme when the going gets tough. Remarkably, democratic socialism in Britain is closer to government than in any other European country. The responsibilities this brings for those supporting the Corbyn project are as great as the opportunities it presents. But there isn’t much time to get ready …

The Intimacy of Power: An insight into private office, Whitehall's most sensitive network

The Intimacy of Power: An insight into private office, Whitehall's most sensitive network PDF Author: Alun Evans
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 1785908871
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes in the corridors of power during a major crisis or after a ministerial reshuffle? How do new government ministers get to grips with their portfolios and priorities? Who guides and supports them? And why, sometimes – during events such as 'Partygate' – do things go wrong? In this meticulously researched book, former senior civil servant Alun Evans lifts the lid on a vital but little-known cog in the machinery of government: private office and the private secretaries who work within it. Private secretaries exercise huge influence, and yet most of us have never heard of them. They are the ones who manage the flow of work, who whisper quietly in ministers' ears and who have been Prime Ministers' closest, most trusted and most discreet confidants. At critical moments in our national history – from the Falklands War to the Westland affair, from Black Wednesday to the 2008 financial crash, from New Labour to the coalition government – they have been central but hidden players. With exceptional access to former Prime Ministers and decision-makers, Evans explores what private office is and why it matters to British democracy. He argues that following the egregious constitutional breaches of Boris Johnson's premiership, private office must once again be taken seriously so it can return to being the independent junction box of government and a vital part of the British constitution.