Reform The Week

31 March 2008

Reform – The Week

The role of government in protecting the citizen in increasingly complex environments has emerged as a theme both in the Byron review of the internet and the further powers given to the FSA to regulate financial services. A critical question for our times is where the boundary between individual and government responsibility lies. Next week Reform makes the case for a rebalancing towards the individual in a series of essays on the New Media Politics Revolution.

Laura Kounine, Editor

Reformer of the week

Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet, suggested that it should be the responsibility of parents to regulate their own children’s use of the internet: “Far more useful than an industry code of practice is a parental code of practice. Even if we accept that it's impossible to change the nature of the web, we parents are not powerless.”

Reactionary of the week

The IPPR think-tank for focussing on the fact that “many young people are effectively being ‘raised online’” without recognising that the internet empowers individuals, undermines privilege and extends choice and can therefore bring major benefits to society and the economy.

Good week for

European small businesses

Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown agreed to: “Secure an EU Small Business Act that delivers a package of measures aimed at cutting EU regulation for small businesses, including making more use of exemptions from regulations.” Deregulation is clearly required as Britain and France have fallen to 9th and 18th respectively in the World Economic Forum’s 2007-08 Global Competitiveness Index.

Transport reform

Transport has been identified as a key component of Britain’s future economic success. David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, said the "shambles" of the Terminal Five opening had sent a "depressing message to businesses around the world". David Cameron recognised the importance of investing in transport infrastructure. Tom Winsor (former rail regulator) said at a Reform lunch this week: “The railways’ future will be bright, but only if the constituent elements of the rail network have clarity of where they fit in the structure of rail services and what they do, and are given the opportunities and the means to make strong and sustainable improvements.”

Partners of snorers

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) has this week approved a treatment for sleep apnoea, a common symptom of which is heavy snoring, on the NHS. NICE is increasingly crucial in deciding, and in effect rationing, available treatments.

. Bad week for

FSA

In a move designed to help the FSA (who were “below the standard” expected by the Treasury Select Committee) pursue wrong-doers, whistleblowers are to be granted immunity from prosecution in return for giving evidence on market manipulations by city traders. This raises questions about the efficacy of financial regulation.

Teaching unions

While the national teaching union conferences rightly criticised excessive central regulation, they blotted their copybooks by opposing parts of the education system that are currently improving results. The NASUWT will ballot on strikes in every school where staff oppose imminent plans to become academies. Richard Sidley, a teacher in Stoke-on-Trent, said the union should oppose "the creeping disease called academies". The NUT proposed to strip faith schools of their powers to control their own admissions, as well as calling for all independent schools to be nationalised.

Free-market capitalism

Martin Wolf, author of “Why Globalization Works”, argued in the FT that the collapse of Bear Stearns marks the “day the dream of global free-market capitalism died”, with the Federal Reserve effectively conceding that financial deregulation has reached its limits.

Quote of the week

“For years, [the National Union of Teachers have] not only been crying ‘Wolf!’, but ‘Tiger! Bear! Lion! Shark!’ But this time they're right. Our children are being chewed up by the misguided strategies of the education system, and they need to be rescued” (Jenni Russell, Guardian).

Reform’s week

The Reform report, Urban Crime Rankings, was cited in an article in The Sun this week.

Reform held a lunch with Tom Winsor, former rail regulator, on the future of rail.