March 2012 - Rick

Rick

Home

Report this Blog for Abuse

Syndication

Archives

Sort by: Most Recent | Most Viewed | Most Commented

Government may ban interim managers

At least, that’s the implication of Paragraph 2.207 in the Budget red book: Personal service companies and IR35 - The Government will introduce a package of measures to tackle avoidance through the use of personal service companies and to make the...

Published 30 Mar 2012 6:52 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
The NHS – it’s a system, stupid!

The NHS risk register, or at least the version of it that has made it into the public domain, doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. I’ve discussed many of the risks at length here and Father Dougal spotted … Continue...

Published 29 Mar 2012 9:43 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Directorships – Are women getting the seats but not the power?

Alison Chisnell has been digging into some of the statistics on female board members. The headline figures show some improvement. omen now make up 15.6% of the boards in FTSE 100 companies, compared to 12.5% last March and a government target …...

Published 23 Mar 2012 9:13 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
The NHS risk register – a weapon with dangerous fallout

Richard Wilson, the former cabinet secretary, warned yesterday that forcing the government to publish the NHS risk register could have unintended consequences: It is deeply disturbing that the storm over the Health and Social Care Bill, now at its height...

Published 20 Mar 2012 6:38 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Why is the public sector so complex?

Henley’s Professor Simon Collinson reckons that central government departments are 30 percent more complex than private companies. He has developed a methodology to measure the level of complexity in an organisation and has come up with the Global...

Published 19 Mar 2012 6:35 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Land tax redux

Has Lord Oakeshott been reading my blog? Me, last year, on the subject of a Land Value Tax: The left’s billions in lost taxes are just as elusive as the right’s billions of public sector waste. When you look at the … Continue reading → Read...

Published 18 Mar 2012 4:55 PM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Not even banks go from nice to nasty in a decade

Things happen so quickly these days. Yesterday morning Greg Smith was a brave whistleblower, after his extraordinary piece in the New York Times attacking his employer Goldman Sachs. By the evening, UK time, the backlash had started with ad hominem attacks...

Published 15 Mar 2012 10:16 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Cameron may impose more red tape on employers

At least that’s the implication of this piece in the Telegraph. According to the paper, if Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin lose their case at the European Court of Human Rights, the government would consider legislating to give employees the right...

Published 14 Mar 2012 7:53 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Red tape is OK for Christians, it seems

According to several news sites around the world, the British government is about to ban the wearing of crosses at work. Even the Scotsman, which I usually think of as a serious newspaper, screamed “Outrage at move towards banning Christian …...

Published 13 Mar 2012 8:08 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Government shared services scuppered by woolly voluntarism

Politicians of all parties make wild claims about the savings that can be achieved through sharing back office services. Cut the bureaucrats before the frontline services, said Eric Pickles when councils protested at the massive cuts they were having...

Published 12 Mar 2012 10:45 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Product? The product is YOU!

A couple of stories caught my eye last week. Google plans to consolidate all its data from its various sources to build up more detailed profiles of its users. Twitter and Facebook also faced criticism over the tracking of accounts and … Continue...

Published 9 Mar 2012 6:06 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Vexatious employment claims – a vicious demon or a Will-o’-the-Wisp

A very good piece from John Read at XpertHR on George Osborne’s call for evidence on compensated no-fault dismissals. (See previous post.) The evidence, says John, has been elusive so far. There is something Will-o’-the-Wispish about this...

Published 8 Mar 2012 10:36 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Is small business a Good Thing?

Small business is, apparently, the Backbone of Britain. And the Backbone of Europe. And the Backbone of America. And the Backbone of Australia. If I could speak another language, I could probably find lots of other places that small business … Continue...

Published 6 Mar 2012 6:26 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
Five years of Fairy Tales

Yes, folks, this blog is five years old today. I’ve been cranking out this rubbish for half a decade now. I’ve done a celebratory guest post over at XpertHR, prefaced by some very kind words from Michael Carty. I set … Continue reading...

Published 2 Mar 2012 9:51 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized
How normal is your social circle

A quarter of a century ago, sitting in a labour economics lecture, I had an Aha! moment. We had been given a lot of dry statistics from the Department of Employment Gazette (remember that?) to look through. Two figures jumped … Continue reading...

Published 1 Mar 2012 10:23 AM by Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Filed under: Uncategorized

March 2012 - Rick

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

Archives

Government may ban interim managers

The NHS – it’s a system, stupid!

Directorships – Are women getting the seats but not the power?

The NHS risk register – a weapon with dangerous fallout

Why is the public sector so complex?

Land tax redux

Not even banks go from nice to nasty in a decade

Cameron may impose more red tape on employers

Red tape is OK for Christians, it seems

Government shared services scuppered by woolly voluntarism

Product? The product is YOU!

Vexatious employment claims – a vicious demon or a Will-o’-the-Wisp

Is small business a Good Thing?

Five years of Fairy Tales

How normal is your social circle