The RSA Blog

Stern changes predictions: says now we have to contemplate six degrees

Blog

12 Mar 2009

Today at Copenhagen, Nicholas Stern admits his 2006 Stern Report underestimated the gravity of the problem - not so much the economics of it, or in terms of the more recent data coming in, but the stunning lack of political response:

Children's education and welfare - no going back

Blog

12 Mar 2009

Directors of Children's Services have the 'job from hell' since the merger of local authorities' education and children's services, according to John Dunford of the ASCL. His argument is that a remit that makes one person accountable for the overall welfare and outcomes of all children in the borough will inevitably lead directors to prioritise avoidance of extreme abuse and neglect,  and make it difficult for schools to claim attention. His warning comes in the run up to the publication of Lord Laming's review into the changes.

1906 SF earthquake "a hoax"

Blog

12 Mar 2009

Touching on denialism in that earlier post, there's a piece on The Guardian website today about the deniers' conference held this week in New York, Global warming - Was it ever a crisis?

The 'realities' of the miners' strike

Blog

12 Mar 2009

Matthew Taylor

I am really looking forward to today’s RSA Thursday. Lord Kinnock and former Conservative Minister for Coal, Lord Hunt, will be responding to David Hencke and Francis Beckett’s new history of the miners’ strike.  

Do we need a Charter for Rehabilitation?

Blog

12 Mar 2009

What would it do, what would it mean?

A bit of self promotion (and nepotism too for good measure)

Blog

11 Mar 2009

Matthew Taylor

One of our Fellows, Tim Hood, founder of Yoosk.com has invited me to take part in a large scale public engagement exercise in the build up to the G20.   It would be great if readers and Fellows would submit questions – you can do so here.   We are filming the answers on Friday, with another of our Fellows, David Wilcox, I hope, asking the questions.  It should be fun – I’m looking forward to it.

Centre - local relations: an RSA perspective

Blog

11 Mar 2009

Matthew Taylor

As someone who has banged on for years about central local relations, and generally been on the side of the localists it is an interesting test when I face the same issues as Chief Executive of the RSA.

Heroes

Blog

11 Mar 2009

When the clock strikes one today, thousands of people across Northern Ireland are going to gather together in silence. They're going to mark their revulsion at the murders of three men - two soldiers and a policeman, two Englishmen and an Ulsterman, one Catholic and two men whose main source of identity would never have been their religion.

Public services - still not getting real

Blog

10 Mar 2009

Matthew Taylor

What with the recession and Northern Ireland, not to mention Jade Goody and Julie Myerson, not much attention will be paid to what will seem to many people as yet another Government paper on public service reform (by the way, has anyone yet written the inevitable Goody-Myerson comparison: on the one hand the ignorant untalented, lumpen Goody who is enduring media intrusion in her dying hours in order to provide financial security for her children, on the other, the fragrant, highly intelligent, middle-class Myerson who seems to be encouraging media intrusion into her family in order that she can sell more books, sorry that should read ‘expose the scourge of skunk’).