Oak-wood - oak-wood.co.uk - Note to self
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Regrets, taboos and erections 1 Aug 2013 | 01:49 am
Recently I came across a blog post by Nimue Brown about naked men in which she notes that In our wider society, the naked male body is a serious taboo, and nothing is less socially acceptable than a ...
Excuses, excuses 30 Apr 2013 | 03:13 pm
Most of us have done it at some time—when given negative feedback we become defensive and find excuses for the actions that are being criticised, or we turn it around and criticise those who are criti...
Time to crowd source performance management? 24 Apr 2013 | 09:36 pm
Public sector targets have been getting a bad press recently. Speaking about the Mid-Staffordshire hospital scandal, David Cameron told Parliament that the Francis Inquiry blamed …a focus on finance a...
Does size matter? 4 Apr 2013 | 08:04 pm
Writing on the INLOGOV blog a few months back, Catherine Staite argued that it’s time to start talking about merging smaller councils, asking How can we justify the inefficiencies and unnecessary over...
Valuing outcomes in urban forestry 3 Apr 2013 | 06:03 pm
Eric Pickles says that local government must become more efficient. It’s nothing new. Sir Peter Gershon was saying the same thing back in 2004 and increasing efficiency was an important driver of the ...
Out of touch Tory 12 Jan 2013 | 06:00 pm
A few days ago the media reported that MPs had called for a 32% pay rise for themselves. The figure actually came from a survey of MPs conducted by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, t...
Blood over breakfast 24 Nov 2012 | 03:54 pm
Browsing Facebook this morning as I munched my marmite I found myself faced with a photograph of the blood splattered bodies of Palestinian children lying dead on a pavement. It’s not the first time i...
Kicked when I’m down 18 Apr 2012 | 08:18 am
Work is bit crap at the moment. My post has been ‘deleted’ and I’m ‘at risk’. In the initial round of redeployment two of us were competing for one post on my current grade, and I found out yesterday ...
The state and gay marriage 7 Mar 2012 | 11:22 pm
The British press is full of the debate about gay marriage at the moment. The religious right is horrified at the prospect that it could be made legal, whilst David Cameron has become an unexpected ch...
What’s that on your lip? 8 Nov 2011 | 06:50 am
It’s a moustache. I’ve decided to take part in Movember, an annual campaign to raise awareness of, and cash for, men’s cancers by growing a ‘tache. Regular readers of this blog will know that in May ...
