The Duchy of Lancaster Records

1947 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Somerville

Two hundred and fifty years ago a record-keeper sat amid the boxes, the cupboards and the shelves which housed his charges, compiling ‘an account of all or most of the records in the Duchy office and how to find them’. The result was invaluable for searchers in the Duchy of Lancaster records, but lacking order and arrangement, as its author was the first to admit, it is not a systematic description of these records and it says very little about their history. There is therefore some justification for attempting a comprehensive view of these records. The rich diversity of interest which the Duchy bears is fully reflected in the range of its records. It has indeed been said that ‘what the records of the United Kingdom are at large, these records of the Duchy are in miniature’. That is a bold assertion, difficult to sustain. For one thing, the Duchy never knew the complicated processes of the royal exchequer, and it must be obvious that the Duchy could not repeat in parvo the whole pattern of the nation's life. Yet the analogy gives a hint of the records' scope, and it becomes closer if we take the Duchy records to include those of the Palatinate of Lancaster. It is true that in the Public Record Office, which contains most of the records under discussion, the two series are treated separately, and the Guide, repeating a distinction drawn in 1868 in the Deputy Keeper's Report, says that the Duchy records ‘are entirely distinct from the records of the County palatine, which, although public, are purely local, whilst the Duchy Records, though private, concern the government and jurisdiction of the entire dominion of the Duchy and embrace the County Palatine as a subordinate regality’. This statement, which the grammarian finds imperfect as an example of the chiastic construction, is equally unsatisfactory to the archivist or historian if we understand it to refer to the palatinate, and not to the administration of the modern county council. We ought no more to segregate the palatinate simply because it was an organ of public administration than we should, say, a private hundred, and the description itself recognises the county palatine as a component part of the Duchy. How the judicial records of the court of Duchy chamber were any less public than those of the chancery court in Lancashire, is not explained. The distinction, in fine, is fallacious.

2003 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Carmichael ◽  
Robert Osborne

Although the United Kingdom is usually regarded as a unitary state in the mould of the Westminster model, in reality, complete political integration and administrative standardization have never existed. Recent political devolution consolidates an increasingly diverse and asymmetrical pattern of territorial governance. Frequently, however, notwithstanding some notable exceptions, this differentiation within the UK's governmental arrangements is overlooked in much of the literature. To help correct this oversight, this article reports on the longstanding differences in the public administration arrangements of one of the UK's smaller component countries, Northern Ireland. Specifically, the article focuses on the role of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and charts some of the key characteristics and trends that have emerged under both the period of Direct Rule from London (since the end of the Stormont devolution in 1972) and in the newly-restored devolved settlement that was introduced in 1999, following the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melina J. Dobson

The official mechanisms of intelligence oversight and accountability in the United Kingdom are arguably disjointed and ineffective. Thus, informal actors such as journalists, have played a more significant role. In addition, a rise of whistleblowers and leakers, such as Chelsea Manning, have highlighted the importance of online archives as an avenue for accountability. The United Kingdom is legally bound to place official documents on the public record at the National Archives. Sensitive material on intelligence and other security subjects majorly impedes the bulk release of documents. Inevitably, the inclination to ‘weed’ sensitive material from mundane documents has resulted in a costly declassification process. Evidence suggests that historians successfully investigated these subjects through the use of archives, despite the efforts of officials to obfuscate. This article argues that historians increasingly constitute the last forum of accountability and that routine declassification is an important, but neglected aspect of our machinery of intelligence oversight.


2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-397
Author(s):  
Kim Solga

In May 2010, a general election in the United Kingdom produced a coalition government headed by David Cameron's Conservatives and (nominally) the Liberal Democrats under deputy PM Nick Clegg. The coalition (still in power in 2014) quickly plunged the nation into a period of postcrash austerity the likes of which had not been seen for generations. When I landed at Heathrow in June 2012 to start a new job at Queen Mary University of London, the ground was thick with casualties—and getting thicker. Significant challenges to the U.K. welfare state have been launched before, of course: most visibly and famously under Margaret Thatcher, perhaps more insidiously and tenaciously under Tony Blair. Blair, having learned the lessons of Thatcher's blunt brutality, was a consummate salesman of the public–private partnership, but in 2010 the facade of “feel good” neoliberalism was almost instantly in danger of cracking. Shortly after the election, Clegg backtracked on his promise not to raise tuition fees, allowing the government to triple university students' annual bills to £9,000. By the end of that year protests had taken over the streets; Brits of all social classes were struggling, and angry.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bartle ◽  
Sebastian Dellepiane Avellaneda ◽  
Anthony McGann

AbstractDoes public policy in the United Kingdom respond to changes in public preferences? If so, is this the result of the government changing its policy to reflect preferences (“policy accommodation”) or the result of governments that pursue unpopular policies being replaced at elections by governments more in line with the public (“electoral turnover”)? We explore these questions by estimating annual aggregate public preferences (“the policy mood”) using responses to 287 questions administered 2,087 times and annual policy using budgetary data (“nonmilitary government expenditure”) for the whole of the postwar period. We find that mood moves in the opposite direction to policy and variations in mood are associated with variations in annual vote intentions. Policy is responsive to party control but not directly responsive to mood. Shifts in mood eventually lead to a change in government and thus policy, but this process may be very slow if the public has doubts about the competence of the opposition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-78
Author(s):  
Okeoghene Odudu

In order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic it has been recognized universally that cooperation between competitors will be necessary. It is also recognized that some of the cooperation contemplated will infringe competition law. A number of techniques are available by which conduct that infringes competition law can escape prohibition. Two techniques used have been to issue guidance on how the competition authority understands the law to apply and to articulate how it will exercise its discretion when deciding to take enforcement action. The combination of these two techniques provides a degree of comfort. In the United Kingdom, the government has gone further by identifying necessary cooperation and excluding such cooperation from competition law on grounds of public policy, in one instance for those in the groceries supply chain. The use of an exclusion order means that there is political accountability for the consequences the decision to set aside competition law will have, both for competitors, others in the supply chain, and for different consumer groups. For parties to excluded agreements, there is certainty ex ante that the cooperation is immune from competition challenge. Avoiding the need to assess the compatibility of an agreement with competition law, rather than permission to engage in incompatible behaviour, can be seen as the real value of the public policy exclusion order granted in relation to groceries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-58
Author(s):  
Robert O. Nartowski ◽  
Lucy Huby ◽  
Ruairidh Topham ◽  
Szymon Golen ◽  
Katrin Brückner ◽  
...  

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in various public health responses around the globe. Due to the devolved powers of the United Kingdom, the response has been centralized but simultaneously greatly differing across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The following article examines the governmental responses to the outbreak, the public health measures taken, data collection and statistics, protective equipment and bed capacity, the society’s response, and lastly, the easing of the lockdown restrictions. In terms of the governmental response, the COVID-19 pandemic was initially met with less urgenon/populacy and social distancing, along with the development of herd immunity, were first mentioned. As the virus continued to spread, the government started imposing stricter measures and a lockdown was implemented. Tests were conducted using a five pillar typology. The collection of information, particularly on COVID-19 associated deaths, varied across the United Kingdom and among the governmental organizations due to differing definitions. In term of hospital bed availability, the rate of hospitalizations was the highest from late March to early April of 2020. Temporary hospitals were constructed, however, they mostly went unused. The United Kingdom society was generally compliant in adapting to the lockdown and trust in the government rose. Nonetheless, as the lockdown progressed, trust in the government began to fall. After several months, the rate of infection decreased and the lockdown in the United Kingdom was lifted in accordance with ‘Our plan to rebuild: The United Kingdom Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy’. The slogan ‘Stay at Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives’ was replaced with ‘Stay Alert. Control the Virus. Save Lives’.


Author(s):  
Ramnik Kaur

E-governance is a paradigm shift over the traditional approaches in Public Administration which means rendering of government services and information to the public by using electronic means. In the past decades, service quality and responsiveness of the government towards the citizens were least important but with the approach of E-Government the government activities are now well dealt. This paper withdraws experiences from various studies from different countries and projects facing similar challenges which need to be consigned for the successful implementation of e-governance projects. Developing countries like India face poverty and illiteracy as a major obstacle in any form of development which makes it difficult for its government to provide e-services to its people conveniently and fast. It also suggests few suggestions to cope up with the challenges faced while implementing e-projects in India.


Author(s):  
Olga Mykhailоvna Ivanitskaya

The article is devoted to issues of ensuring transparency and ac- countability of authorities in the conditions of participatory democracy (democ- racy of participation). It is argued that the public should be guaranteed not only the right for access to information but also the prerequisites for expanding its par- ticipation in state governance. These prerequisites include: the adoption of clearly measurable macroeconomic and social goals and the provision of control of the processes of their compliance with the government by citizens of the country; ex- tension of the circle of subjects of legislative initiative due to realization of such rights by citizens and their groups; legislative definition of the forms of citizens’ participation in making publicly significant decisions, design of relevant orders and procedures, in particular participation in local referendum; outlining methods and procedures for taking into account social thought when making socially im- portant decisions. The need to disclose information about resources that are used by authorities to realize the goals is proved as well as key performance indicators that can be monitored by every citizen; the efforts made by governments of coun- tries to achieve these goals. It was noted that transparency in the conditions of representative democracy in its worst forms in a society where ignorance of the thought of society and its individual members is ignored does not in fact fulfill its main task — to establish an effective dialogue between the authorities and so- ciety. There is a distortion of the essence of transparency: instead of being heard, society is being asked to be informed — and passively accept the facts presented as due. In fact, transparency and accountability in this case are not instruments for the achievement of democracy in public administration, but by the form of a tacit agreement between the subjects of power and people, where the latter passes the participation of an “informed observer”.


Author(s):  
Mykola Trofymenko

Public diplomacy of Great Britain is one of the most developed in the EU and in the world. The United Kingdom has developed an extremely efficient public diplomacy mechanism which includes BBC World Service (which due to its popularity boosts the reputation and the image of Great Britain), Chevening Scholarships (provides outstanding foreign students with opportunity to study in Great Britain and thus establishes long-lasting relations with public opinion leaders and foreign countries elite) and the British Council, which deals with international diplomatic ties in the field of culture. The British Council is a unique organization. Being technically independent, it actively and efficiently works on consolidating Great Britain’s interests in the world and contributes to the development of public diplomacy in Great Britain.   The author studies the efforts of the British Council as a unique public diplomacy tool of the United Kingdom. Special attention is paid to the role of British Council, which is independent of the governing board and at the same time finds itself under the influence of the latter due to the peculiarities of the appointment of Board’s officials, financing etc. The author concludes that the British Council is a unique organization established in 1934, which is a non-departmental state body, charitable organization and public corporation, technically independent of the government. The British Council, thanks to its commercial activities covers the lack of public funding caused by the policy of economy conducted by the government. It has good practices in this field worth paying attention by other countries. It is also worth mentioning that the increment in profit was getting higher last year, however the issue of increasing the influence of the government on the activities of British Council is still disputable. Although the Foreign Minister officially reports to the parliament on the activities of the British Council, approves the appointment of the leaders of organizations, the British Council preserves its independence of the government, which makes it more popular abroad, and makes positive influence on the world image of Great Britain. The efficiency of the British Council efforts on fulfillment of targets of the United Kingdom public diplomacy is unquestionable, no matter how it calls its activities: whether it is a cultural relations establishment or a cultural diplomacy implementation. Keywords: The British Council, public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, cultural relations, Foreign Office, Her Majesty’s Government, official assistance for development


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-102
Author(s):  
Muhammad Husnul Maab ◽  
Shadu S. Wijaya ◽  
Zaula Rizqi Atika ◽  
Denok Kurniasih

The emergence of rural community owned enterprises khown as BUMDes has been in line with evolution of public administration pradigm, from OPA to NPM who implemented in local government. Local potency development becomes a substantial aspect to improving local competitiveness. Hence, BUMDes formation is one of the models financial capacity to develop local potency in rural level. The aim is comparing traditional and public enterprise based management in local potency management. The results show that there is a fundamental difference in the management of local potency in rural level. Consequently, We argue that has been on the right track, the evolution of the government business model to the public enterprise for the management of local potency in rural level. Evolution of BUMDes is from a bureaucratic to the business sector model, but as a social business not profit maximizing businesses.


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