Phil Swann

Love this street name in Montréal…made even nicer by the fact it crosses a street named after JFK.

The supreme folly of a Labour civil war A leadership battle could hand No 10 to Nigel Farage

Some wise words from Andrew Marr in this week’s New Statesman
magazine.newstatesman.com/2025/09/24/t...

A half length portrait painting of a man in front of a dark brown background. He is wearing a lighter brown jacket with a white frilled collar shirt underneath. He is wearing a long grey wig.

Born #OTD 1665, John Hervey, 1st earl of Bristol. MP for Bury St. Edmunds for nine years, he was described as "preferring the environment of home or the race course" to Westminster in #HistParl's Commons 1690-1715 volumes. Read his full biography here: ow.ly/LwTI50T35kK

And the future of local government hinges on fundamentally reforming its financial systems!

Absolutely outrageous!

Car culture is insanity. Dad is 82, has stopped driving and sold the car. Last bit of admin was to cancel the AA. They tied to convince him he should continue driving. 🙃

This is a stunning exhibition. A must see!

www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhi...

Suspended Reform councillor appears in court over ‘threats to kill wife’ A councillor suspended by Reform UK has appeared in court accused of making threats to kill his wife.

Reform suspended one of the Kent County Councillors who was elected for the party in May, after 3 charges, including threatening to kill his wife + coercive behaviour. He denies the charges, and is now an independent councillor while the case + trial proceeds
www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/...

Low turnout and an unfair voting system: UK elections ranked in the bottom half of countries in Europe British voters are moving away from the two-party system, but their electoral system hasn’t kept up.

“It is estimated that there are around 7 million to 8 million people not correctly registered or missing from the registers entirely. This is not many less than the 9.7 million people whose votes gave the government a landslide majority.”

The Treasury’s Long Shadow: Why Local Government Needs Its Own Barber Philip Swann The extent to which the Blair government’s delivery unit became the focus of tension between No 10 and the Treasury is a key theme in Michelle Clement’s fascinating history[1] of the u…

@swannphil.bsky.social‬ examines what happened to Missions in the spending review?

inlogov.com/2025/06/26/t...

The government should not ban public servants from speaking in public | Institute for Government New guidance will damage the quality of government and public discourse.

No10 has issued odd internal guidance banning officials speaking at public events

It means more closed govt & worse policy decisions-the opposite of what ministers say they want

From @drhannahwhite.bsky.social & me @instituteforgovernment.org.uk

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...

INLOGOV Blog The Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham

What lessons are there from Blair’s delivery unit for the current government’s missions?
Some thoughts in my INLOGOV blog

inlogov.com

Great write up of @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social’s new report which shows local authorities have been forced to ration access to publicly funded care. This has created a damaging geographical and demographic ‘care gap’

Full report here: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

@alexgathomas.bsky.social and I take a look into Georgia Gould's announcements last week and ask the question: what does this mean for the government's missions?

From LA to Paris, the populist right hates cities – and it’s fuelled by a sense of bitter defeat | Andy Beckett LA was once a conservative stronghold; now the military is occupying it. Liberal cities have become targets for politicians looking to stir up their voters elsewhere, says Guardian columnist Andy Beck...

A worrying populist dimension to the already challenging central-local government relations. Well worth reading From LA to Paris, the populist right hates cities – and it’s fuelled by a sense of bitter defeat | Andy Beckett www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Healthcare policy is afflicted by short-sightedness With the NHS in triage mode, business and society need to shift to prevention of ill health

Yes, yes, yes!
on.ft.com/4486HpF Healthcare policy is afflicted by short-sightedness

…. it would be interesting to know if ministers did actually look at the lessons from the experience of the GOs, and why think this things will be different this time around www.local-government.org.uk/library/2020...

New thing klaxon! How do you know if your organisation is mission-driven? Today we’re releasing a mission maturity framework I’ve co-authored with @danhonig.bsky.social and Vinuri Dissanaya at Georgetown Better Government Lab in collaboration with Nesta. Link: www.nesta.org.uk/report/on-mi.... 1/n

About half of councils' income comes from central government and Rayner will announce plans for a new formula for allocating the money based on local needs, including population, poverty and age. This will lead to more cash going to deprived areas after her department said that the link between funding and local needs had "broken down" and that reform "will enable local authorities who have had to scale back services the most to catch up". Rayner has pointed to people living in cities in the north that are paying hundreds of pounds more in council tax than those in leafy southern areas. She said these residents were "unfairly being asked to pay more for worse services". The most extreme examples include the council tax for a three-bedroom semi in Hartlepool, which is more than an £80 million ten-bedroom mansion in Westminster.

'About half of councils' income comes from central government and Rayner will announce plans for a new formula for allocating the money based on local needs, including population, poverty and age. This will lead to more cash going to deprived areas...'

Council tax bills set to rise in the south to fund the north Angela Rayner is to announce plans for a radical overhaul of the tax to stop residents in poorer areas ‘unfairly being asked to pay more for worse services’

Some actual 'levelling up' is on the way here (listen for the screams)...

(£)

www.thetimes.com/article/4677...

Slot machine firms target UK’s poorest areas and channel funds to billionaires Exclusive: Politicians including Andy Burnham call for councils to be given powers to stop new sites opening Slot machine companies are targeting Britain’s poorest neighbourhoods and channelling the proceeds to billionaire-owned overseas corporations and a Wall Street fund that uses an offshore lending structure, the Guardian can reveal. The number of slot machine shops has risen by 7% since 2022, as companies -friendly planning and licensing laws to flood Britain’s high streets with new “adult gaming centres” (AGCs), most of which are open 24 hours a day. Continue reading...

Slot machine firms target UK’s poorest areas and channel funds to billionaires

Local polls and general elections: a Victorian perspective As barometers of political opinion, local elections have long had a special place in British politics, offering useful (though not necessarily accurate) guides to national trends. The link between …

With local elections happening in many areas today, here's our earlier article on the complexities of 19th century municipal polls: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/l...

An amazing resource….

Neil Barnett presenting on: 'The Growing Pains of Devolution in England: A Case Study of the Yorkshire and Humber region.'

Neil Barnett presenting on:

'The Growing Pains of Devolution in England: A Case Study of the Yorkshire and Humber region.'

#PSA25

The first PSA Local Politics & Governance panel is getting underway at #PSA2025 @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @psalocalpol.bsky.social

🪑 @ariannagiovannini.bsky.social
📄 Neil Barnett
📄 Georgina Blakeley
📄 @swannphil.bsky.social
📄 Jim Chandler

@peckersley.bsky.social @tjarnold.bsky.social

Really enjoyed presenting early findings from my PhD research on the role of politicians in central-local government relations. Grateful for the insightful questions.

‘Everyone was surprised’: Rachel Reeves looks to nurture GDP green shoots Chancellor welcomes striking official data as allies set out ‘four-pronged response’ to Trump tariffs

Imagine being a head teacher reading the quote in this piece from a Treasury adviser warning that capital resources should not be used to “just” fix school roofs! The public estate is broken - schools, hospitals, prisons….- and fixing it must be a priority for the government. on.ft.com/3EjIofG

@mjfrancis.bsky.social

Our first panel will be: 'Central-local Relations & Devolution in England'

Mon 14th, 1.30pm, Dhani Prem, Exchange

🪑 @ariannagiovannini.bsky.social
📄 Neil Barnett
📄 Georgina Blakeley
📄 @swannphil.bsky.social
📄 Jim Chandler

The US may be reversing course on child labour Acute strain on the jobs market has encouraged some states to consider reducing restrictions on employing minors

This is astonishing!!!!
on.ft.com/4jiZV6A The US may be reversing course on child labour