Henry Midgley

But there is something more here which I think is important and I see which is the undervaluing of humanities research- you see it in academic papers, in posts about how to do academia and in a general presumption even in my own discipline that all good academic work is science.

@hetanshah.bsky.social is completely right about @britishlibrary.bsky.social. The NAO should also do work on this- their remit covers the efficiency, effectiveness and economy of public spending and this fits right in there. We need our national library back at work!

Rwanda here we go again- a political debate which has little link to policy (again). None of the elections back to 2015, were covered as a choice of policies- all of them were covered in precisely this way, with politicians asked who is going to win not what are you going to do!

Absolutely right- its a problem throughout the NHS system too that we don't recognise Coeliacs enough. My partner is coeliac and was recently in hospital. At one point, she ended up with a dinner of mashed potato and carrots, as there was no other coeliac dinner option

This will be really good. Ben knows his stuff and I'm really looking forward to it.

Eg, if I was a Conservative/Reform swing voter- the media is doing a good job at the moment of telling me Farage is beating Badenoch- but a really poor one of informing me about what the difference between them is so I can choose which one I prefer. Similar on the left with the LDs/Greens v Labour.

A lot in this- one of the things I find really depressing is coverage of election campaigns which focusses on who is winning not what is the choice between the 2,3 or 4 parties? Not in the sense of this is the choice you voter should make- but this is the choice you are making...

The key details are all here so get your papers in! durham.ac.uk/business/new...

For those interested, we have another workshop at Durham in December- this time on accountability and participation. The deadline for abstracts is the 6th October with registration deadline in November. Its a really topical area both for academics and policy makers.

Really thought provoking article- captures both the farness and closeness of the past- lovely writing!

You might be a better researcher in your own subject (tho I'm not sure) if ybou aren't aware of other fields and other ways of thinking- but I don't think you can be a better thinker in general or understand more about the world yourself.

Its probably as important as a method of education as the formal stuff you do at university- and its good to have tons of different perspectives in the room- I learnt hugely from friends who did physics, medicine, English, engineering and economics and I hope I contributed too.

I completely agree with this. Also I'd note that students talking to each other about each other's courses and ideas beyond those courses is a key part of university education. The chat about the existence of God or the morality of Friends at 3 am matters

I kind of wonder about truss. She suffered the most embarrassing defenestration of any PM really in British history- and I wonder if this is the only way to cope.

And by doing so cutting state capacity- this is the crazy thing about university cuts- you are actually cutting the ability of your state to respond in the future... and worse you are contracting out the choice of what to cut to a group of uni managers with no incentive to maximise state capacity

Should have said the references in the book are to pages 64-5 where you will find the evidence behind the Zircon and Falklands cases mentioned above

I'd be really interested in the views of people who are more integrated into Parliament and policy than me like @ruthfox.bsky.social and @matthewfright.bsky.social

Holding Government to Account: Democracy and the National Audit Office The National Audit Office has played an important role in the checks and balances of the UK parliamentary and political system over the last 40 years. This new book, more than just a history of the UK...

The examples that I mention above and a lot more about similar issues are included in the book that Aileen Murphie, Laurence Ferry and I wrote together about the NAO last year www.routledge.com/Holding-Gove...

Lastly, as context, whilst the National Audit Office would always take rightly account of security advice from government, it doesn't have to as its work is protected by Parliamentary Privilege and its head is an officer of the House of Commons.

I don't think the FT article covered whether @meghillier.bsky.social before 2024 or Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown since 2024 were informed about this spending but that could have been the route used to maintain Parliament's knowledge of events.

In the mid 1980s, there was a controversy about the zircon spy satallite system, again Robert Sheldon, then Chair of
the PAC was told about the project by the C&AG and indicated his views about how it should be scrutinised.

If you go back in history- you can find several examples. eg. in the early 80s, the C&AG Sir Gordon Downey's report on the Falklands conflict disclosed that there were matters that were too confidential to include but that he had briefed the committee about them

Really interesting story but it doesn't cover an important angle. Was the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee
told about this expenditure? That might sound odd but in the past often it has been the Chair of the PAC who would have been told about secret spending like this.

Yes and also often cutting the things that maintain their very longterm income whilst maximising shortterm financial health- its actually very like the coalition government

Well its the way to destroy what remains of the university sector in the name of consultancy contracts!

Utterly- also if I'm going to learn about a period, the fact that I read a historian with a different eye (or several historians with different eyes) as to what is important, introduces it to me through the lens of their mind- rather than just using the lens of my own mind and my own preoccupations.

Just tagging in @mjrobbins.com who wrote the post as well!

We really have to realise that changing specifications every five minutes, delaying things for political reasons and changing the structure of projects has costs and these costs are large. Restoration and Renewal is an another case of this.

One sentence really struck me though "Throughout the project, Westminster has acted like the worst kind of helicopter manager, obstructing progress, refusing to delegate ownership, and responding to setbacks with a combination of panic and denial" this isn't just an HS2 problem

HS2 and the slow decay of Britain “I have tried to ascertain where design decisions get made... I have struggled to get to a definite answer.”

This is interesting and illuminating on HS2 and well worth reading martinrobbins.substack.com/p/hs2-and-th...