The London Tube strike has unleashed a whole lot of nastiness. And I don't mean the 'misery for millions of Londoners'(of whom I'm one) who are deemed too weedy to undergo 48 of limited public transport. Welcome to the world of class hatred, hysteria,pathological...
Our blogs
In praise of middle-sized
The news emerged yesterday that the successful publisher Quercus is now up for sale because, according to co-founder Mark Smith, "the publishing industry seems to be polarising around very big and very small companies. It's difficult for companies of our size." The...
Towards a new kind of banking
There is a political trend emerging, and it has been a long time coming. Ed Miliband is calling tomorrow for a more diverse banking system. We know his office has been considering an American-style Community Reinvestment Act, which forces the big banks to set up...
Tackle the most difficult cases first
This is the first blog post of 2014, and along comes an opportunity to write about one of New Weather's objectives for the year ahead - beginning to set out the parameters of a new kind of measurement system for public services which doesn't actively undermine the...
How to re-bank the UK effectively
Our associate David Boyle has been working with Baroness Kramer in the House of Lords (before she went into government) to develop implementable approaches to creating a new local banking infrastructure in the UK. You can read the results here (Re-banking pdf), and...
Pay attention now. This blog will help you bypass banking obfuscation
Let me start with a rather important paragraph, with apologies for the jargon. “The Commission concludes the CRA was not a significant factor in subprime lending or the crisis. Many subprime lenders were not subject to the CRA. Research indicates only 6% of high-cost...
The problem with a special shop for poor people
I remember hearing the visionary co-production pioneer Edgar Cahn talk about the defence of his National Legal Services Programme, the service that helped organisations to sue the government to enforce their rights. He had urged the programme over the years to ask...
The peculiar mismatch in our public services
I get my gas from British Gas. It isn't a perfect solution, and I will be getting £53 of their vast price increase back, I gather. Whoopee. I can't quite get my head around why this tweak works, but it has made me think about the way our services are currently...
What if money grew on trees?
I listened to the Localis lecture by Penrith MP Rory Stewart this afternoon. He was talking about the importance of local action -if we are going to fulfil our promise to our children that they can grow up and re-make the world. He told the story of a small village in...
Co-production and the language of empowerment
'Co-production' is one of those buzzwords that echo down the corridors of Whitehall without necessarily touching the walls. It is an important critique of public services and a set of linked proposals to finding the untapped resources that can save public services in...