#ministerial-comments

#ministerial-comments

The World Bank's recent report argues that government intervention, when done right, can actually be an essential ingredient of economic success, reversing decades of opposition to industrial policy.

Keep state as close as possible to where it's actually used. Lift it when multiple components need it or you need to coordinate behavior between components.

Campaigner Aysha Hawcutt stated that residents were 'not anti-homes', but believed the Adlington plan was 'the wrong proposal in the wrong place'. She expressed pride in the community's resilience against the development threats.

Shabana Mahmood's migration changes are expected to save just 600m, about 6% of the 10bn the home secretary claimed, according to the government's own data.

I think technology is the main reason it's possible. I don't have to be in the office, in one central place of work - I can see lots of things digitally. But it requires hard work and sacrifice. My employers were pleased with what I was doing and didn't seem to notice that I was managing those two things at the same time.

Tarique Rahman, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which swept to a landslide victory in last week's parliamentary elections, has been sworn in as the country's first elected prime minister since deadly protests in 2024, which resulted in the ouster of the previous government and its prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. The political alliance led by Rahman's party won 212 seats in the Jatiya Sangsad, Bangladesh's parliament, in Thursday's elections, leaving its main competitor, the alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami, with 77.

Plus, King Henry's new conquest, RTÉ and TG4 make nice, and the clickbaity WSJ Browsing through the annual reports of the National Gallery and National Library for 2024, both published last week, we noticed how modestly the people who guard our cultural heritage are paid. Dr Audrey Whitty, the director of the library, got a salary of €127,868 that year. There are no bonuses or benefits-in-kind attached to the position. And the director of the National Gallery, Dr Caroline Campbell, was paid €128,724.

In this new season, I'm asking how the Trump White House is rewriting the rules of U.S. politics, and talking to Americans whose lives have been changed as a result. Today's episode examines the destruction of the civil service: the removal of professionals, and their replacement with loyalists. I've seen this kind of transformation before, in other failing democracies. Everyone suffers from the degradation of public services.

Understanding the difference in purpose Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions are designed to create impact - especially social and economic outcomes that benefit everyone, not just paying customers. A public agency doesn't measure its success in revenue or margins, but in how much it improves lives, builds equity and maintains public trust. This doesn't mean budgets and spending don't matter - they absolutely do - but money is not the goal. It's the tool.

O n January 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol insurrection, many people were transfixed by what they saw in Washington. It was only a heroic effort by the police that kept the insurrectionists out of the House of Representatives, where elected members and staff took refuge behind chairs and under desks. In one sense, the riot, with its outlandish characters wearing costumes and face paint, felt like an absurd exclamation mark that punctuated the end of an erratic presidency.

"looking at the facts"

He said performance indicators for senior officials would be set by ministers and those civil servants not meeting expectations would be shown the door. Instead of the sideways shimmy to another team or department if you fail to perform, I'm afraid you will be sacked, he said, adding that the doers, not the talkers would be in line for promotion.

Kemi Badenoch's recent ridiculing of the prime minister over a supposed U-turn on digital ID plans (Keir Starmer denies change to digital ID plan is yet another U-turn, 14 January) is the latest example of a frustratingly narrow view of leadership. To the Conservative leader, adapting a policy is a sign of no sense of direction; to those of us who work in product management, it looks like necessary iteration of the process.