Hands off our Ombudsman and other Big Soc Stuff

Hands off our Ombudsman we say. The Public Administration Select Committee has taken a look at the Big Society and is not sure what it sees. The Big Society seems to have become a curiously insubstantial reincarnation of the wooly mammoth – is it real or just a ghost that haunts the cracks and... 
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Consumer Policy on Trial

I am watching Richard Thomas being put through the wringer of the Leveson enquiry via the live feed. The counsel was giving him a hard time about not going for the journalists either at all or only indirectly via approaches to the Press Complaints Commission. But it was not just Richard that was in the... 
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Complainants Anonymous – the curse of the internet?

Are you amongst my 35 loyal readers who have found my TripAdvisor reviews helpful? Have you armed yourself with my latest incisive review of the Red Mullions guest house in Oxford – Baby for Breakfast? In my 15 reviews in 4 years, I lurk behind my mask as ‘themacrae’ so I am that dread... 
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Citizen as e-data owners – the power to transform the citizen/state relationship

“All hospitals used social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube” Can this be true? Well not in the UK. The figures come from research done by the US-based Society for Participatory Medicine. They took a look at 14 top-ranked US hospitals and the variety of uses is an instructive... 
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A Legacy of Learning and Transformation

Ann Abraham is determined to leave a legacy of learning that will transform public sector complaint handling. This time she has taken a look at the way a wide range of departments of state and their associated organisations handle their complaints. Her Office’s findings characterise complaint handling... 
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Dare to Blow the Whistle?

Public Concern at Work –the charity that supports whistleblowers- recently used the launch of their biennal review to pose the question “ Whistleblowing – a right or a duty?”. Val Moore, our Partner on the spot, reported some disturbing contributions from people who had reported concerns... 
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Think Fig – the MAC Autumn Newsletter

There were times in the summer when we worried that Andrew Craig would go pop. Such was his despair as he watched our hopes and expectations for meaningful public engagement – beware! new acronym EwPC  (engagement with Patients/Communities)- go down the drain. We were concerned that his powerful... 
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Request for Geek Bearing Gifts

Raw Data – Tough to Chew This is what happens when geeks start to play with data and map the blogosphere. This is just showing links and connections as well as indicating apparently how much certain topic areas are addressed. I found this on a website run by a Malcolm Hurst who works for MSN and... 
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J’accuse! updated – a modern approach to accountability

Accountability is meaningless when the finger of suspicion and blame can move in a week from a single “rogue” reporter to the Chairman of News Corporation. In a situation where potentially all are held accountable in this random way, no one is accountable. Caroline Oliver a friend of MAC... 
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Summer Newsletter: Citizen Result

This has been quite a summer for campaigning and the citizen voice. Most recently I got this email from Ricken Patel of Avaaz showing how a combination of persistence, skill in using modern communication networks and helped by the breaking phone hacking scandal had turned a done deal around. It’s... 
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