Monthly Archives: December 2013

Sense and sensibility: politicians, judges and the rise of judicial review

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Andrew Defty

The rise in judicial review in recent years has brought the judiciary into conflict with governments of either persuasion. In the main this has involved judicial decisions on whether public bodies (the government, ministers and local authorities) have exceeded their powers by … Continue reading →

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Who Runs Britain? November Poll

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Andrew Defty

The results of this year’s second Who Runs Britain? poll are as follows: Table 1: Voting Intention – if there were a general election tomorrow which party would you vote for? Party Number % Conservative 16 32 Labour 18 36 … Continue reading →

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Sharing the blame: tensions over Civil Service reform

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Andrew Defty

I mentioned in an earlier post that proposed Civil Service reforms were likely to cause tensions between the Government and senior civil servants. The reforms which are being developed by the Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude, include proposals to allow Ministers to … Continue reading →

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Do advisers advise while Ministers decide?

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Andrew Defty

When questioned recently about the influence of one of his special advisers, the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, replied with the well worn aphorism ‘advisers advise, Ministers decide’.  In an interesting article in The Guardian this week, Fiona Millar examines the … Continue reading →

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