Preparing for war: What we didn’t learn from the pandemic March 12, 2025 The health service may not have been ready for the pandemic, but the rest of government was even less prepared. As we brace for a potential war, it’s time policy makers listen to that warning, says Joe Hill Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian general, famously asserted that war was the “continuation of politics by other [...]
Move fast and break the civil service: Will Whitehall get its own Elon Musk? February 12, 2025 Whether it sees Elon Musk’s DOGE as a success or a failure, Whitehall should see it as a warning. Because institutions which won’t reform themselves can only ever be reformed by outsiders, usually in unpredictable ways, says Joe Hill In December, the Prime Minister pledged to “rewire the State”, and Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden told [...]
What should an office for value for money do? November 21, 2024 There's no point in raising money if it won't be spent well. Joe Hill lays out how the office for value for money could actually help.
In defence of Treasury brain October 30, 2024 Treasury officials are often criticised for making budgets add up in the short term at the expense of long-term goals. That’s true, but imagine the money that would be wasted if they didn’t! Writes Joe Hill Budgets are divisive, everyone has their own gripe. Too much spending, or too little. Not enough growth, or too [...]
New government must feel the need for speed July 9, 2024 Labour have stormed out of the gates with new policy announcements, but in their first 100 days, they must deliver quickly too, says Joe Hill The investor Paul Graham wrote that, “the startups that do things slowly don’t do them any better. Just slower”. The same is true of governments. Four days after the General [...]
AI is supposed to automate paperwork, not create more March 15, 2024 While ministers are issuing press releases and creating new regulations around AI, everyone else has got a head start, says Joe Hill Everyone caught the AI bug in 2023, and politicians were no exception. When I first started working on AI as a civil servant in 2017, you couldn’t fill a meeting room to talk [...]
