Accountability & Brexit

2 different but significant points about accountability and the general debate on Brexit. FIRSTLY The existing UK Government is far from accountable on many things. Take Immigration as a major example. When the last changes were made, introducing the Tier-based system for non-EU immigrants, the primary legislation essentially made three key demands. a) That the […]

Morality? What Morality?

What morality? How would you have coached the people involved? A true tale of a global financial services organisation that offers wealth management facilities to private investors. In so doing they charge fees to deal with the paperwork and accounting associated with running a portfolio. Imagine then the scenario where, following a withdrawal instruction, they […]

Why is leadership seemingly so unintelligent?

I muse upon this in the aftermath of the recent election and installation of Pope Francis I.  Now what, I hear you ask, has this got to do with Leadership and Management or Intelligence?  Why is Leadership seemingly so unintelligent? Consider the following: We know (as modern science has explained) the origins of the universe […]

How Select should criticisms of banking culture be?

It appears that everyone is running around shouting about the latest financial services scandals (Libor/Euribor, Interest Rate Swaps).  Heads are being demanded on the proverbial platters but that seems to me to miss the underlying issue – banking culture.   Questioning Bob Diamond (late CEO of Barclays) in front of the Treasury Select Committee, Mark […]

Reducing waste…

I was having a discussion the other day with a senior Civil Servant about the impacts of Primary and Secondary Legislation on workload in government. Historically Government has always distrusted minor errors creeping into administrative areas even when it can be shown that their incidence is very small, paling to insignificant. The response has mostly […]

Is Civil Service accountability above the Law?

Now this is going to be quite short but covers the important issue of Civil Service accountability. Over recent years I have come across a number of instances where the Civil Service in the execution of their duties have seen fit to impose an interpretation of the Law that has no foundation in legislation. All […]