Public opinion: Your blogs

We must look to social enterprise to transform public services

The start of 2010 brought with it the popular mantra of ‘business as usual’, with the very institutions responsible for the downturn leading the rallying cry.

In reality I don’t think it’s that easy, as consumers and citizens are sceptical about a quick return to the business status …

Devolved powers needed to tackle climate change

With a general election on the way, all parties are talking a great deal about public service reform. We all know that such reform is important, particularly in the current economic climate when the biggest challenge to public finances is to do more with less while continuing to provide …

Offering sanctuary should be simple

Ahead of last week’s Region of Sanctuary conference, Radio Leeds devoted a news slot to the City of Sanctuary movement, which aims to create a culture of hospitality towards asylum seekers and refugees.

In a later phone-in show on the radio station, a man …

Tory green paper is anti-development

As anticipated the Tory planning green paper is fundamentally an anti-development document, based on the premise that its power base in the rural areas and small town does not want housing growth.

It has no practical proposals for positive planning. To satisfy the nimbies …

Shrinking budgets threaten child runaway havens

Government budget cuts threaten the nine life-saving emergency refuge places for the 100,000 children under 16 who run away each year in the UK. 30,000 are 12 or younger.

Although the government has already recognised the urgent need for establishing crisis response services for runaways, proposed budget cuts …

Jobs are the key to avoiding new sink estates

Jobs must go hand in hand with houses if we are to avoid new sink estates developing.

That is the message Business Voice WM, the united voice of business in the west midlands, has been seeking to get across to government. Indeed it is the major theme of …

Social reality after the TV credits roll…

Channel 4’s Tower Block of Commons saw four cross-party MPs swap high profile politics and expenses for low incomes and benefits.

From the ‘ivory towers’ of Westminster to the tower blocks of some of the country’s most run-down areas, it was classic fish out …

Let’s start building a wisdom economy

We know we're in the middle of seismic shifts in the way the world operates. We don't know where they'll end up, or where any of us will be when the dust settles, if it ever does. Will we have a job? A pension? A home? Someone to care …

Power to the public sector?

This week the Conservatives set out plans to let public sector workers take control of the organisations they work for.

Allowing staff from job centres to call centres to form employee-owned co-operatives to deliver services was pitched by leader David Cameron as 'the most significant …

Does your legal form make you a social enterprise?

The launch of the national social enterprise mark has brought to the fore once again the issue of how we identify and recognise social enterprise.

Many argue that in order to be a 'true' social enterprise, your organisation must exhibit specific characteristics and that these must …