Reform Reform Reform

Cohen on Sunday said:

Like the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the further up the hierarchy [of for example RBS – but by implication he is also talking about Cafcass  – looks after the interests of vulnerable children before the family courts] they travelled, the less they knew about the true state of the organisations they claimed to be governing.

By implication, Cohen wants to show what is in jeopardy in the public sector by a culture of fear, or what Gordon Brown is being accused of at the moment (the good thing that came from the bullying accusations was finding out what we shall now call the Ballsy Bargain where, when you fear how your manager will react to bad news, deliver good news first, then let rip on the bad to soften the blow, named after its Ministerial purveyor Ed Balls).

Cohen’s contention is to highlight a spanner in the works for top-down, public sector (New Labour-esque!! – my charge) managerialism. T’is not in my name.

I was speaking to an MP yesterday who voted on the issue of the children’s bill (includes reforms of the Family Courts – remit of Cafcass), currently in its report stage, and who said that they were unconvinced by a newspaper editors’ evidence (no names were mentioned), and saw nothing but a thirst for licentious details.”

As far as I can tell, Judges = powerful lobby / MP’s unconvinced by public interest argument from newspaper eds. – I think this could be a very tricky run for Mr Straw. Myself, there might be a case for family courts reform opening up, for purposes of scrutiny, and mainly public scrutiny, just a pity the media acts as, well, a mediator to this, because I would quite agree that the spokespeople for the type of democratised reform that a lot of people – Cafcass included – would like to see should not be newspaper editors with dubious motives.

Now let us hope that that democratisation reaches the top-end of the public sector – free information be it in Cafcass or the courts cannot be left underestimated.