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Welcome to the Breslin Public Policy blog. With entries posted by Tony Breslin, it will give you a flavour of what we are working on and what we see as the 'hot' issues in public policy, especially in the fields of education, political participation and youth and community engagement, and on issues such as organisational leadership, notably in education and in the third sector, and corporate responsibility. Please use this space to talk back to us. We want it to be a discussion forum, not just a sounding board!

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Tackling the rise of the "SPAD-ocracy"

We reproduce below a letter from Tony Breslin published in The Guardian on Monday 23rd June: 

How ironic that in a week when Michael Gove has become the latest politician to disown the outpourings of a (former) Special Adviser, or "SPAD" (Gove forced to disown senior adviser after attack on Cameron, 17 June), the Guardian’s investigations reveal that almost half of Labour's candidates in key marginals are “ex-special advisers, party workers, researchers, lobbyists or former MPs” (Labour picks Westminster insiders for key seats, 18 June).
The emergence of what might be termed the "SPADocracy" confirms the absence of meritocracy and enshrines an inequality of access and influence at the heart of our politics; it is bad for democracy.
While the rise of the so-called "professional" politician has brought some benefits, the dominance of the SPADocrats across both front benches and beyond leaves Parliament more cut-off and remote than ever, and confines policymaking to a clique of bright young things who know everything and anything except the price of a loaf of bread.

Dr. Tony Breslin
Director
Breslin Public Policy Limited
Posted by Tony Breslin, Breslin Public Policy Limited at 01:53

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