Tag Archives: Politics

Tories and procurement transparency

Posted on 16/02/2010 by Alistair Rae

Tories are proposing that all public sector contracts with a value of over £25k should be published. That’s ostensibly to improve transparency, encourage competition and improve access to the public sector Market for Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SME). Lots … Continue reading →

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A sudden enlightenment?

Posted on 07/02/2010 by Alistair Rae

Liam Fox is reported in this weeks Telegraph, discussing the forthcoming Strategic Defence Review.  There’s one on the way regardless of which bunch get in at the next election, and in my opinion it’s well overdue.  HM forces are maintaining … Continue reading →

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Delivering effects in Afghanistan

Posted on 28/01/2010 by Alistair Rae

Watching the twitter traffic this morning about the Afghan conference being hosted by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office today in Lancaster House and I saw this tweet, reported by both DFID and FCO. @annamac33: Every 30 mins 14 children die … Continue reading →

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Why are Lib Dem defence criticisms always so weak?

Posted on 14/01/2010 by Alistair Rae

This morning we have another weak criticism from the LibDem front bench, following my observations on Chris Huhne recently.  Defence spends too much on promotion rather than just funnelling all the cash towards direct recruiting.  It’s not as if the … Continue reading →

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Tory health policy and targets

Posted on 07/01/2010 by Alistair Rae

The much trumpeted draft health manifesto from the Conservatives contains a couple of interesting points.  One the one hand there is the promise to: scrap all of the politically-motivated process targets that stop health professionals doing their jobs properly, and set NHS providers free … Continue reading →

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Security and biometric collection in schools

Posted on 03/01/2010 by Alistair Rae

On the Blue Blog an article talks about fingerprinting and biometric collection in schools. The collection is used to then manage a number of services for pupils including catering and library usage.  There was quite a lot of commentary about … Continue reading →

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Lib Dems and Policing – Abusing Freedom of Information

Posted on 02/01/2010 by Alistair Rae

Chris Huhne has commented on data derived from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about cost of vehicles in policing, published here on the party website. So police forces and authorities spend quite a lot on hiring vehicles.  My … Continue reading →

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Twelve weeks in the summer

Posted on 26/09/2009 by Alistair Rae

So the hardy perrenial of the summer recess has reared it’s head again, this time courtesy of the Speaker. In many ways I agree, parliament not sitting for twelve weeks is unhelpful to constituents and restrictive to effective democracy. Many … Continue reading →

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