I’ve just finished watching the fascinating TV series on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, screened on BBC. I’m one of the handful of people who worked for both of them. I was chief adviser to Gordon Brown (1990-92) worked in various roles in government for Tony Blair, including as head of the Policy Unit and head of the Strategy Unit (1997-2004), and I almost went to work for Gordon when he became Prime Minister in 2007 (my draft contract described me as ‘adviser on the governm

I've done a blog with Rachel France looking at the role of social capital and civil society through the pandemic - to kick off a programme of work that will gather evidence and make recommendations about recovery plans. https://covidandsociety.com/social-capital-roles-during-covid-19-harnessed-for-recovery/

I’ve spent a fair bit of my life as a bureaucrat. This may be why I have a deepening antipathy to unnecessary bureaucracy. I keep seeing a pattern of bureaucratic inflation. It’s like weeds spreading in a garden. In the case of organisations, each new process makes sense in its own terms, particularly against a backdrop of new complexities and risks. This particular road to hell is paved with the best intentions. But the aggregate effects of the new bureaucratic processes