The RSA Blog

Beware false spending cuts

Blog

06 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

There I was, all prepared with a blog showing how cancelling ID cards would only save a fraction of their top line cost when exactly the same issue was the lead story on the Today Programme. There is disagreement, but the mid range estimate of how much could be saved on ID Cards themselves - as distinct from biometric passports which will soon be required internationally – seems to be around £1.5 billion, which works out at £150 million a year over the ten year programme.  This is a lot of money but a different order of contribution to the looming spending gap than the £5 billion figure that tends to be thrown about.

Schools debate - must do better

Blog

05 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

With teachers’ organisations committed to boycotting next year’s SATS for eleven year olds and Gordon Brown making a speech about parent power, schools policy is back in the spotlight. The debate is bound to be emotive. Society will never be perfect and schools are always a likely culprit for perceived social ills. Discussion about how to educate is weighed down by ideological baggage, and, as good traditional teaching is better than weak progressive teaching (and vice versa), there’s enough evidence to reinforce any prejudice.

Skills versus knowledge in education: a false dilemma

Blog

05 May 2009

There  is a debate in Education that just seems to go on and on, that between ‘traditionalists’ and ‘progressives’. These terms are so ill-defined as to make the debate more a slagging match - each side imagining the other to be the bogey-men they would most like to attack. A sub-sector of the debate that is a bit more clearly defined is that between those who favour a skills-based education and those who favour a traditional knowledge-based education. The RSA is somewhat engaged in this debate as its Opening Minds curriculum is to a certain extent skills-based.

Public spending - a looming trilemma?

Blog

01 May 2009

Matthew Taylor

Do we have to choose between social justice and universal public services? This was one of the issues raised at this morning's 2020 Public Services Trust seminar.

Can the RSA help close the digital divide ?

Blog

29 Apr 2009

Matthew Taylor

I am speaking this afternoon at an NCVO conference on civil society leadership. If I get the chance to talk about what we are trying to do at the Society, I'll describe how I see the challenge of Fellowship engagement.

MPs allowances: the dangers of winning, the virtues of clumsiness

Blog

28 Apr 2009

Matthew Taylor

There is one thing worse than losing a political argument: winning it. Given that all policy is seen to fail sooner or later, those who oppose an idea know it is only a matter of time before they can say ‘I told you so’. But the person who presses their case and wins runs the risk of being left the isolated scapegoat. In true ‘In the Loop’ fashion Whitehall insiders have their own version of an old saying: ‘success has many parents, but failure is a bastard’. I lost many arguments in my time at Number Ten, but if ever I thought I might win I made sure I wasn’t alone. 

Pointless and irrational but, hey, I'm hooked

Blog

27 Apr 2009

Matthew Taylor

This blog  is very self indulgent. 'Really', I hear you saying 'and how exactly would that distinguish it from all the rest?'.

Jeremy Deller: how art "digs into public life"

Blog

27 Apr 2009

We have had my brother-in-law staying during Jeremy Deller’s latest project, ‘It is What It Is’. We have been working with Jeremy on the Bat House Project. Both works provide a mechanism, a vehicle (literally in the case of ‘It is What It Is’) to encourage debate and engagement with particular issues.

The pro-social council - what is to be done?

Blog

24 Apr 2009

Matthew Taylor

So here, in outline, is the argument I made to the Association of County Council Chief Executives yesterday morning....