Best of the web 15/09/09

Hi and welcome to our new series of posts rounding up the best articles on the web each day courtesy of bloggerscircle.net

Bad news Ringen in New Labour ears
Ringen shows that since 1997 the UK’s very high child poverty levels have hardly moved, that health inequalities have grown, the downward curve of crime has hit a plateau and, while there have been some gains in educational outcomes, even these are contested. Labour’s big failing, he argues, was that it did not mobilise the population or public service professions behind its core social and reform objectives.
http://www.matthewtaylorsblog.com/thersa/bad-news-ringen-in-new-labour-ears/

Ben’s Blog: Prisoner Reform and the Internet
The only blog by a serving British prisoner is in the process of being closed down. He currently posts by mail sent out to friends, who upload it onto blogger – even this is now to be proscribed. I believe that internet access is an important part of prison reform and that net access should be made widely available in prisons.
http://leftoutside.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/bens-blog-prisoner-reform-and-the-internet/

Putting the C into CSR
Any government genuinely committed to cuts in public spending will need a new language to admit its limitations, a polite way of saying that shit happens. As an addition to recent debates about *co-production of public services*, is there time and space for some thinking about co-reduction?
http://armslengthstate.blogspot.com/2009/07/putting-c-into-csr.html

Fifty-one days
The fixed-term Parliaments idea is around again, which is rather a shame. Fixed-term parliaments are the concession-that?s-not-a-concession of reform, the democratic renewal equivalent of telling your spouse “I’m sorry that you’re angry”.
http://www.demsoc.org/blog/2009/09/14/fifty-one-days/ debating http://hadleighroberts.co.uk/2009/09/fixed-term-parliaments-wont-necessarily-fix-parliament/

Fixed term parliaments
Elections should be about what the people want, not the Prime Minister
http://www.markpack.org.uk/fixed-term-parliaments/ debating http://hadleighroberts.co.uk/2009/09/fixed-term-parliaments-wont-necessarily-fix-parliament/