Tag: Colin Copus
How to maintain high ethical standards in local government: a perspective on the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s review so far
Colin Copus offers his perspective on some of the evidence heard so far by the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s review into ethical standards in local government. He argues that it is a difficult task to balance the issues at stake in refining the current system. There are also important arguments surrounding whether or not to nationalise or localise standards in local government. But the work of the Committee is vital if we are to maintain high standards of ethical behaviour in local government.
Grenfell’s lessons for democracy: listen to our podcast
On 12 October the author Lynsey Hanley, Conservative London Assembly Member Shaun Bailey, Prof Colin Copus, Prof Patrick Dunleavy and campaigner Clare Coatman launched our 2017 Audit of UK Democracy at the LSE with a discussion of the Grenfell Tower fire. What lessons does the disaster hold for the way local government functions, for regulation […]
Join us at the LSE for the launch of our 2017 Audit of UK Democracy
On Thursday 12 October at 6.30pm Democratic Audit is launching our 2017 Audit of UK Democracy at the LSE with a discussion of the Grenfell disaster’s lessons for local government, public housing and social justice. Speakers include Lynsey Hanley, the author of Estates: An Intimate History, Prof Colin Copus and Prof Patrick Dunleavy, the co-director of Democratic […]
Audit 2017: How democratic is local government in England?
England (outside Greater London) is one of the largest areas in the liberal democratic world that still lack any form of regional governance. Here, local authorities are the only other tier of elected government and they play a key role in the democratic life of cities, towns and regions. As part of the 2017 Audit of […]
The next step for local government should be the right to pass primary legislation
Councillors are currently limited in how much influence they are able to have over their local area, locked in local governance networks in which they feature but don’t control. Assessing these networks and their democratic credentials, Colin Copus concludes that the right to pass primary legislation, over for example the legal drinking age or fox hunting, […]
An English Parliament terrifies the British political and academic elite far more than the thought of Scottish separatism did
The Scottish independence referendum opened up a number of debates around both the future constitutional status of Scotland, but also of England, with improved and empowered local government, reforming the House of Commons, and regional devolution all being mentioned as potential routes forward. Here, Colin Copus argues that all of these fall short of what […]
If England players must sing the national anthem at the football World Cup, it should not be ‘God Save the Queen’
With the football World Cup approaching, England manager Roy Hodgson is insisting that his players sing the national anthem before each game. We asked a number of democracy experts to share their views on Hodgson’s rule. In the first of a series of posts on this issue, we find a broad consensus that while singing the […]
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