Category Archives: history

Why the next government must tackle Whitehall reform to get the best bang for its buck

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Francis Maude pic credit: Gov.uk

Last week I attended a meeting of the industry forum, a progressive think tank that discusses crucial business and economic issues often addressed by Labour politicians and MPs under Chatham House rules. This one was different for two reasons. It was “on the record” and it was addressed by a former Tory minister, Francis Maude, one of the founders of Policy Exchange, a Conservative think tank and traditionally to the right of the party.

But before anyone on the left start to think this is another example of Sir Keir Starmer’s lurch to the right, this was an unusual and useful meeting of minds.

Lord Maude has recently conducted a thorough and detailed independent review of the governance and accountability of the civil service for the government – not the most sexiest of subjects. But its important findings have been spurned by the present Tory government.

To my mind there is a lot to be learned from this review for both Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party. It is quite clear from the latest interviews with Labour’s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, that she believes that if Labour win the next election it is going very difficult for them to spend more cash on the day to day running of public services. Labour needs to make sure it doesn’t waste a penny of taxpayer’s money and Lord Maude’s proposed reforms could help them achieve this.

What Lord Maude frankly exposes is that Whitehall is directionless. Yes there are theoretical controls – the PM is technically responsible for running the civil service. But there is no system of delegating this power to either civil servants or ministers.

Centre of Whitehall is unwieldly

The result in his words: ” The centre is now unwieldy, with confusion about where responsibilities lie and a lack of clear lines of accountability. Other jurisdictions with similar systems provide signposts to improved arrangements.”

Why this is important is that it means there is a lack of overall control on how large areas of government spending are made and how effective the policies implemented by governments are in practice. One only has to read my articles in Byline Times to see legions of exposures by the National Audit Office of waste, inefficiency and bad decision making which could have saved the taxpayer billions.

Lord Maude’s proposals include merging the Cabinet and the Prime Minster’s office into one powerful body – so a future PM will have much greater control over the direction of the government – and a new Office of Budget and Management to bring together cross Whitehall projects which tend to fall into a void because of Whitehall’s silo mentality.

The head of the civil service should also be a full time job so he or she can concentrate on bringing about all these reforms and so should the First Civil Service Commissioner who should be in charge of a wider programme and be able to hold the head of the civil service to account and make an annual report to Parliament.

Every minister should get a letter telling him or her clearly what their powers are and what they should expect from civil servants.

Not a lot of this is radical stuff. Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand already have similar systems because they are more modern democracies than the UK.

Labour are about to start talking to the civil service under the usual courtesy given to opposition parties before a general election. This would be an ideal situation to raise this. I would also suggest that the Shadow Cabinet should have a session with Gareth Davies, the head of the National Audit Office, to draw on the independent body’s wealth of experience of what went wrong in the past and how they could avoid such pitfalls in the future. Voters will depend on Labour getting it right.

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How a past Wellingborough by election almost saw the nemesis of my career in journalism

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Wellingborough By Election. John Mann of the Labour Party, canvassing outside the John White factory. ;November 1969 Pic credit: Alamy and Trinity Mirror

Tomorrow’s Wellingborough by-election brings back memories of an earlier by-election there 55 years ago which nearly ended my career.

The election was triggered by the death of the sitting Labour MP. Harry Howarth and was won by the Tory candidate Peter Fry a right wing populist who blamed Labour for the permissive society of the 1960s and later voted against joining the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union. He died in 2015. His losing Labour opponent was John Mann, a local man, who with his wife Jean, a county councillor, was a stalwart of the local Labour Party. He is alive and we still exchange Christmas cards.

I was a young cub reporter, fresh from Warwick University, one of the first graduates to join the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph, apprenticed at £16 and sixpence a week. I had that summer married my wife, Margaret. Aged just 22, I was young and enthusiastic and learnt my trade covering parish councils, magistrates courts and local societies.

Imagine my excitement when a by-election was declared in the autumn of 1969 in Wellingborough, a sleepy Northamptonshire market town, extended only by a Greater London Council estate which meant the town had a mixture of Northamptonshire and Cockney accents. I would be able to rub shoulders with the ” big boys ” – then they were mostly male – from the nationals coming to cover it. And indeed I did, meeting, I remember, Laurence Marks from the Observer and numerous journalists from the Mail , Express and the Daily Mirror.

Now Peter Fry being on the right of the party invited Enoch Powell to speak at a hustings meeting. I managed to get there – not to report- and bring my wife, than a teacher at a local infants school.

Powell did not repeat his infamous ” rivers of blood speech” on immigration made the year before but instead gave a rather dry speech on economics. But the audience had been infiltrated by local Young Socialists. They started heckling him and then my wife joined in. I decided as I was a reporter I should remain neutral and didn’t.

After the meeting we had some drinks with some of the national journalists who thought my wife had been brave and I didn’t think much more about it.

” You failed to control your wife”

The next day I discovered that the local Tory big wigs and Mr Fry had been in touch with the editor, Ron Howe, to get me the sack. My crime was ” I had failed to control my wife” at the meeting. I had not thought about that as I always regard my wife as an independent person and not supposed to be controlled by me. But it says a lot about attitudes in Wellingborough in the late 1960s.

But the editor decided not to sack me. Instead I was banned from the Conservative Club in the town for at least a year ( I didn’t mind that) and was not allowed to write about Conservatives. If I had been sacked my journalist career would have just been 15 months long instead of the 56 years today. I had escaped nemesis by a hair’s breath.

Wellingborough inner ring road scandal

I did redeem myself two years later. Wellingborough Urban District Council called a secret meeting of the whole council to discuss plans for six options for a new inner city ring road – these were the fashion in the early 1970s. One option involved demolishing 300 houses to make way for the road. A local Labour councillor decided this was too much and leaked all the proposals to me. It made the splash, the project was eventually buried and I won my first journalist award as reporter of the year on the East Midlands Allied Press group. I did get a summons to see to town clerk who was furious with me saying ” Who the hell do you think you are, you’re not working for the Guardian”. When I did six years later I was tempted to ring him up. My local editor backed me and in turn threatened the town clerk with national publicity for the cover up.

I then left the Northants ET as a qualified journalist and I got a job on the Western Mail in Cardiff. I suspected the Tory Establishment in Wellingborough were glad to see the back of me.

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The double standards on whistleblowing by Epsom and St Helier University NHS Trust

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Epsom Hospital

UPDATED: Since the publication of this blog the communications team of the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group have responded. It says:

It is not correct to say Ms Usha Prasad was dismissed for raising patient safety concerns. A disciplinary panel concluded that she should be dismissed for competency grounds, concerns around her practice/conduct and because relationships with key colleagues had broken down. This decision was upheld on appeal.

I shall be publishing a blog shortly on how this decision came about and how it was plainly unjust and directly aimed at ruining her career as a doctor.

An extraordinary missive has come to light from the leaders of the Epsom and St Helier University Trust ( now part of the St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group) on whistleblowing.

The letter was sent to all staff to encourage them – that they will be safe if they disclose any unsafe practice or patient concern at the two hospitals. Indeed it says they shouldn’t hesitate to do so.

Ostensibly this followed the scandalous murders of babies at the Countess of Chester hospital which led to nurse Lucy Letby being sent to prison. The management of that hospital behaved appallingly threatening any doctor who raised the issue to cover it up and there will now be an independent inquiry.

What the letter doesn’t tell you about is the real behaviour of the top managers of that trust - its authors, chair Gillian Norton and chief executive , Jacqueline Totterdell – if anyone dares to report if something is wrong.

Dr Usha Prasad and the previous chief executive, Daniel Elkenes in better times

For this letter came out just six days after the trust were planning to land their biggest whistleblower, former consultant cardiologist, Usha Prasad, with a £180,000 costs bill for daring to raise the case of an ” avoidable death” of a heart patient at the trust and claims of racial and sexist discrimination. See hearing here.

Usha Prasad, who was dismissed by the trust, has had years of fighting the top management through employment tribunal hearings. The trust has spent a small fortune of taxpayer’s money employing battalions of lawyers to prove her wrong. The two top officials have been deaf and blind to any appeal on her behalf for reinstatement, including a letter from the chair of the British Medical Association.

Jaqueline Totterdell – chief executive

Worse than that the lawyers led by Jessica Blackburn from Capsticks and Nadia Motraghi KC, from Old Street Chambers, have continually derided her attempts to defend herself. Jessica Blackburn described her whistleblowing claim as ” unmeritorious” in correspondence and Nadia Motraghi, described her case having ” no prospect of success” during the latest cost hearing which led the judge to order her to pay £20,000 in her absence. She also painted a picture of her making a fortune as locum -based on no recent evidence- and appeared to be an expert on London house prices to justify her paying the bill.

Jessica Blackburn rushed to send her the bill only for another judge to stay the payment as Usha Prasad, a brave fighter, is to appeal the original judgement against her later this year. The trust are still charging interest at a daily rate while she appeals.

So if I were an employees of the trust I would be beware of the silken and siren tones of the letter below and think very carefully before reporting anything to the top management. Think instead of the fate of Usha Prasad.

This is a serious shame because the sentiments in the letter are fine but the reality is rather different. I am afraid I think this is more a public relations exercise than really the top management being committed to real change. I fear reputational damage always outweighs concerns about patient safety.

Read the text of the letter below:

Dear colleagues

The news of Lucy Letby’s crimes has shocked us all. These acts were a profound betrayal of patient trust, and we hold in our thoughts all those who have been affected.

We welcome the independent inquiry that will take place to identify every lesson that can be learned and to do all possible to prevent anything like it happening again.

While dreadful events like this are thankfully extremely rare, this is a stark reminder of the vital importance of us all feeling safe and confident to speak up, raise concerns, or whistleblow if we are worried about something.

We are all crucial in making sure our services run safely for our patients. It’s so important that every one of you – whatever your role – feels safe and confident to raise concerns if you have any worries. We want you to know that we will always take these seriously and you will not get into trouble for speaking up. If you feel you’re being treated differently for doing so, let us know and we will act as necessary. If you have something to say, please don’t hesitate.

Our responsibility doesn’t end with speaking up; it extends to listening to concerns and addressing them. Really listening and responding in the right way to the concerns of patients, families and colleagues should be an integral part of how we work and support each other. We know that sometimes when you raise concerns things don’t happen quickly enough, and we are introducing new measures to improve this.

In the meantime, how we respond to incidents will be strengthened across the NHS with the launch of the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) from September. It will increase opportunities to learn and improve, and for closer working with those involved.

We have a Raising concerns at work policy with more detail on the process. In summary, if you ever have concerns there are several ways you can report these, including through your manager or lead director, our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, or, if you feel it cannot be resolved internally, organisations external to the Trust.

And of course, you can speak directly to us, or any member of our executive team or Board – we are here to listen and act as necessary on what you say.

We are sure that many of you will have found these recent events upsetting, and if you would like to talk to someone please do reach out to your line manager or to our staff support service – email esth.staffcounselling@nhs.net  or call (number deleted)

Thank you for everything you do every day to keep our patients and families cared for and safe.

With best wishes,

Gillian Norton, Chairman

Jacqueline Totterdell, Group Chief Executive

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Ukraine: An extraordinary project to revive the history of a once forgotten nation

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Video of the full proceedings of the launch at the British Museum

What do you really know about Ukraine? Until Russia started its bloody war to invade the country probably little more than the exploits of the Cossacks and Britain’s role in the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War in 1854.

This week I was invited to the British Museum for a press conference to launch a remarkable international project to thoroughly research the history of this little known large country .

History is important to us all. That’s why students in the UK learn about the Romans, the Norman Conquest, Henry VIII, Cromwell, the British Empire, the first and second world wars, and the creation of the National Health Service to name but a few. These pivotal events shape our past and give us a sense of belonging and the interpretation of our past can be a catalyst for changes in the future.

This project – the Ukrainian History Global Initiative – was launched here because it will be based here. It is being financed by a wealthy Ukrainian oligarch, Victor Pinchuk, who owns Interpipe, which makes pipes and railway wheels, six TV stations and Grand Buildings, a London landmark in Trafalgar Square. He is one of the trustees – the others include Carl Bildt who is chair of the trustees and former prime minister of Swedenm and the historian Anne Applebaum, lawyer Philippe Sands, and Ukraine’s most celebrated poet, Serhiy Zhadan. Two generations of Ukrainian historians are contributing tto the project.

The project is enormous and will take three years to complete with no fewer than 90 academic researchers working on the history of Ukraine from across the world going back to its ancient past as well as more recent events leading up to the current war.

Ukraine is not on the periphery of Europe and Asia

What emerges is that Ukraine far from being on the periphery of Europe and Asia played a central role. It had strong links with ancient Greece Its wealthy assets as a bread basket for the world has meant it was invaded by the Nazis in the second world as Hitler wanted the land to feed his country. Russia seems to have its eyes on its land for similar reasons plus its mineral wealth. The Mongols dominated Ukraine for a period and there are strong connections between Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. Jews, Muslims and Christians also play prominent roles in its development.

This rich background will provide historians with a feast to investigate.

Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University, who developed the academic concept of the project over the past three years, and is Chair of the International Academic Advisory Council and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Ukrainian History Global Initiative, said: “This Initiative will involve scholars from around the world in several disciplines, using traditional methods as well as new technology that helps us to handle the deep past. ‘Ukraine’ here is to be understood very broadly, as the lands and peoples, from the very beginning. There is much interesting to be said about the origins of our language, about the bronze age, about the Middle Ages, about modernity — from Amazons to Vikings, Ukraine is a territory where our standard view of history can be revised and made more vibrant.”

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Namibia: Dunes,Moonscape, Prehistoric Plants and Chinese uranium

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A visit to Namibia’s extensive desert reveals an extraordinary unique environment probably not repeated anywhere else on earth.

Huge sand dunes near the coast compete with an enormous desert plain dotted with prehistoric plants and an unparalleled moonscape next to mountains full of uranium.

First the sand dunes. Just outside the port of Walvis Bay lie large sand dunes favoured by quad bike fraternity. We visited this first and saw how popular they were.

Sand dune outside a quad bike centre
Quad bikes

Next we passed the resort of Swakopmund A German colonist resort which still contains many of its original buildings.From here there is a huge desert plain where you find prehistoric plants.

One of the German style hotels in Swakopmund

The star of the plants is the Welwitschia mirabilis a prehistoric plant that can live for 3000 years and grows just two large leaves that often split into pieces in the arid desert. Extremely slow growing there are male and female plants which attract desert living insects and beetles .They live only inland in the Namib desert and in the wilder parts of southern Angola.

Female prehistoric plant which has red green cones observed by tourists on our trip
Male prehistoric plant

Life can exist in the desert because a fog moves from the coast during the night creating enough moisture for animals like the springbok and jackals to find moisture from plants including the dollar plant a succulent that stored water in its leaves.There are also sidewinder snakes and scorpions but fortunately are all asleep in their burrows during the day.

The most dramatic area is the rocky moonscape where nothing appears to live but in fact hides an oasis in a dried river bed that has existed since 1849.

the arid desert
Moonscape of Namibia
the oasis bar restaurant and camping site

In the distance are mountains where Namibia’s huge reserves of uranium can be mined.Now all the main mines are owned by the Chinese according to our guide.The uranium is exported to China for its civil nuclear programme. Curiously another big Namibian export is marble to Italy so perhaps not all Italian marble is home mined.

An emu at a small zoo in the oasis

Durban’s amazing hidden Zulu art and history gallery

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The day began very badly.We aimed to get a taxi to the City Hall which has both an African art gallery and museum.But when we arrived the city hall staff were on strike because of the cost of living crisis and it was closed.

The taxi driver recommended another art gallery in suburbs and we left just as a number of police squad cars arrived as there were reports of fighting in the building. We got to the second gallery only to find it was closed on Mondays.

About to despair the driver recommended a third gallery which specialised in Zulu art and artefacts.This was open though I later found you were supposed to book in advance.He had taken us to a gem of a place and we got a personal tour and Margaret got help to go round the place – an old Victorian building – in a wheelchair with strong Zulu men lifting it over stairs.

What we had discovered was a place called the African Art Centre or Phansi Gallery a non profit making company which encourages and preserves Zulu artefacts and supports black artists.The gallery houses a huge private collection by Paul Mikula who has amassed over year.

Part of the gallery included a Nelson Mandela concert poster.

Now I know nothing about Zulu culture beyond the populist view of them as warriors. What we were shown have us an insight into their lives and traditions and the everyday utensils they use. One of the most striking exhibits were the fertility dolls given to a young women on reaching puberty. They are given the doll at a special celebration and keep it to give to a man they agree to marry.

A fertility doll It has no face

There were also ordinary utensils from spoons – there are male and female ones – and they keep them for life as they have communal eating,bowls for beer and special pots for making yoghurt.

A collection of spoons- male spoons have a pointed end females ones are flat
a yoghurt pot shaped like a pear

There were also wedding dresses which are put together by relatives and friends each adding a strip of fabric with the symbols of the clans of each partner.

Our guide shows Margaret one of the artefacts a decorative beer bowl

Without the series of unfortunate incidents earlier we would never have found out about this museum which also plays a big role in the community and helps local artists

snake sculpture in the grounds of the museum

Kangaroo Island: How this wildlife idyll revived after facing near extinction

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One of the most remote places we are visiting around Australia is called Kangaroo Island – the country’s third largest island off a remote peninsula in South Australia.

View of the Kangaroo Island foreshore from our ship anchored in the passage

This island was once attached to the Australian mainland until the thaw following the last ice age created a sea passage between the island and Australia.

It has a chequered history.It’s first inhabitants were from Stone Age but never developed further after being isolated. It was the subject of Aboriginal stories and myths including one that the sea passage was created after a group of rebellious women fled a tyrannical leader who caused the sea to rise up and drown them.

At one time the island was deserted leaving its unique animals and birds to have no fear of humans. But then in the early nineteenth century a group of settlers and ex convicts moved in and there followed a massacre of its animals and birds for food and profits.

One species a dwarf emu became extinct just like the more famous Dodo as settlers ate them all. They then turned on the huge kangaroo population and decimated them. They also killed off most of the seals for their skins but ignored their valuable oil which meant eventually their community collapsed . ASA last gasp they started to kill off the whales of the coast but this was only seasonal.

One of the sandy bays on the island at Penneshaw

But it has a well stocked supermarket, petrol station,post office, cafes,a cricket pitch and a craft market and a number of tourist attractions. Also a number of new species have been introduced including koala bears and bees. Indeed the Ligurian bees on the island produce a unique honey as the population is isolated from any other bees.

Today’s island has recovered and many of its unique mammals are flourishing again.The main threat to them are wildfires which have destroyed a lot of the vegetation not people as the population is very small. Penneshaw the port where ferries link to the mainland has just 300 people.

Sculpture Trail and suspension bridge
Burnt out tree

There is a splendid open air sculpture trail on the island where hidden in the dense bush you can find wallabies and kangaroos if they don’t run off to hide. I have put up pictures of the trail below.

One of the sculptures
trail meets tree
Hidden in here is a wallaby hiding by a bush

When I was there the bush was tinder dry with a few flowers in blossom.Here is one below.

Sealink ferry connecting the island to the mainland

Vibrant Papua New Guinea contemporary art exhibition which slams and praises politicians tackling asylum seekers

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Captain Cook looks down on the Papua New Guinea people Painting by Mathias Kauage

Queensland’s Art Gallery is well known for its collection of Aboriginal art. But when we visited it on a day stop in Brisbane what attracted us was a special free exhibition of contemporary Papua New Guinea artists called Kin, reflecting the close relationships among the country’s painters.

It celebrated the work of Mathias Kauage and more recent painters and was a riot of vibrant colours and political messages touching on issues like refugees now right at the heart of debate in Britain. It included a remarkable painting of Captain Cook looking down on residents of Papua New Guinea – see above.

Detailed caption of two modern Papua New Guinea painters who have followed through from Mathias Kauage
A painting celebrating the former New Zealand Premier welcoming refugees

The paintings don’t shy away from tackling political issues particularly on the red hot issue in the UK and Australia on asylum seekers and refugees. A particular striking picture praises Jacinda Arden accepting and helping refugees.

One wonders how the painters would portray Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak -both brown British politicians deporting largely brown and black asylum seekers from the shores of the UK. Perhaps the UK’s leading art gallery Tate Britain should commission them to paint a series to counteract the baleful influence of Right wing Aussie politician Tony Abbott on stirring up hate and resentment in this country.

Dramatic portrayal of the 2012 Australian general election struggle

Two other striking paintings by the group stand out. One is a painting of the Left v Right Australian general election where the combatants are portrayed as Aboriginal chiefs.

Another is of refugees kept in a holding camp in Papua New Guinea similar to the UK plan for one in France.

Australia’s harsh holding camp for migrants and asylum seekers

Two other striking exhibits in-the exhibition including a remarkable sculpture representing people literally getting under other peoples skins and an amazing collage by an Iranian born artist now living in America using decorative images used by Pakistani lorry drivers to beautify their vehicles .

a striking exhibit using different skins
Amazing collage by an Iranian painter

Buddhas,Warlords and ethnic Vietnamese :Ho Chi Minh City’s History Museum

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Ho Chi Minh City is famous for a number of tourist sites including its Post Office,Notre Dame Cathedral and its Harrowing Vietnam War Museum.What is not so well known is the city’s history museum telling the story of the country for the last 30,000 years.

Tucked away in a side street off a main road next to the city’s botanical gardens this gem of a museum includes numerous artifacts dating from the Stone Age to the present day.

Big frieze across the entrance of museum
Inner courtyard entrance to the museum

When you get there you are greeted by a large Buddha in a room full of Buddhas from different Asian countries.

This-is the Buddha that greets you

The Buddha here is a reproduction of the oldest known Buddha in Vietnam dating back to the eleventh century

These fine stone sculptures date from the eleventh century when a warlord triumphed over rivals and led to a leap in artistic culture

The museum had some fine costumes and an interesting exhibit showing how ethically diverse the South Vietnamese with no fewer than 34 different indigenous groups in the country .

historic Royal finery and pottery

The sad thing is that we weren’t able to see the whole museum including more modern exhibits.officially designated as disabled friendly some of the rooms were inaccessible to wheelchairs because you had to go up a flight of steps.Also the ramp to the entrance was so steep that I needed the assistance of some fit young Vietnamese lads to get to the top.

Our taxi driver also helped Margaret get up the stairs to the museum’s cafe. On the plus side it had a very good accessible disabled toilet.

Fascinating exhibit showing the 34 different groups making up the Vietnamese nation

Finally since we were last in Vietnam the number of scooter boys and girls has grown on the roads. See a previous blog. So much so the latest new expressway has a a segregated lane for the daredevil scooter drivers Even there they move faster than some motor vehicles weaving around to overtake each other – just like in Ho Chi Minh City.

Off the Western tourist route: Kuala Lumpur’s amazing Islamic arts museum

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On the edge of the centre of Kuala Lumpur – a city dominated by huge skyscrapers and apartment blocks – near the greenery of Lakeside Gardens is a modern museum dedicated to Islamic Art.

Ornate metalwork at the museum
Two huge metal candlesticks
Stunning costumes and textiles from India

The Islamic Arts Museum opened as recently as 1998 is not on Cunard’s shore experience programme and consequently has few Western visitors.But this is not a local or even a Malaysian national museum but an important international one.

It has over 12000 artefacts, a large reference library and tells the story of the spread of Islam from the Middle East across Asia and China through Islamic Art.Missing are artefacts from Spain after it was occupied by the Moors.

The collection is impressive. It covers metalwork,ceramics,textiles,jewellery,weaponry, manuscripts, China and furniture.

A 16th century illustrated Koran

With 12 galleries it is almost too much to take in but it also a very cool Restuarant and Cafe to have lunch and a break. What is fascinating is how Islamic art adapted from Turkish carpets to delicate China through a rather extravagant costumes in India.

One of the most intricate China pieces in the museum

There was also an interesting collection of weaponry including heavily decorated rifles as illustrated below.

Malayan rifles

Textiles and ceramics were well represented.

Examples of ceramics

The light and airy building makes the museum pleasant visit especially as Kuala Lumpur has very high humidity and temperatures often top 33C.

Batik carpet