#cabinet-selection

#cabinet-selection

Watching how much the team was able to get done quickly was "astonishing," said Mikey Dickerson, a senior advisor for the Tech Viaduct. Those behind Tech Viaduct say that Elon Musk's team caused harm that will take years to undo, but it also showed how much can get done in government when you have the force of political will behind you.

The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Germany's first political party, are struggling to muster their optimism in a year when five of Germany's 16 federal states are set to elect new parliaments. According to the latest opinion polls, the SPD could be voted out of power in two states that is has governed for decades. In two others, the SPD is polling in the single digits.

F or my party-the Conservative Party of Canada-2025 was an annus horribilis. We suffered a string of strategic missteps, failed to break through to voters on the issues that dominated the national conversation, and paid the price in both public confidence and political momentum. I won't revisit every episode here, but we must acknowledge the reality of a very difficult year and learn from it.

Understanding the difference in purpose Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions are designed to create impact - especially social and economic outcomes that benefit everyone, not just paying customers. A public agency doesn't measure its success in revenue or margins, but in how much it improves lives, builds equity and maintains public trust. This doesn't mean budgets and spending don't matter - they absolutely do - but money is not the goal. It's the tool.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has vowed that he will lead Fianna Fáil into the next general election, and insisted he won't be stepping down as leader when Simon Harris becomes taoiseach next year. After a turbulent year for his party, Mr Martin appears to have warded off any threats of a heave against him, following a disastrous presidential election campaign in which his chosen candidate, Jim Gavin, withdrew from the race.

Meeting in campaign mode In Germany's political system, federal party conferences are key events for any party, serving as an opportunity for self-reassurance, attack or consolation. Even the choice of venue holds meaning: a show of campaigning and confidence. Elections are being held in host state Baden-Wurttemberg two weeks after the party conference. Before the end of September, four more of Germany's 16 states are set to hold elections. In two of the five states Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt the CDU holds the office of state premier.

In this new season, I'm asking how the Trump White House is rewriting the rules of U.S. politics, and talking to Americans whose lives have been changed as a result. Today's episode examines the destruction of the civil service: the removal of professionals, and their replacement with loyalists. I've seen this kind of transformation before, in other failing democracies. Everyone suffers from the degradation of public services.

"looking at the facts"

The Conservatives are calling for a proposed renovation of the Houses of Parliament to be paused and "refocused" over concerns about costs potentially running into the tens of billions. MPs have been presented with proposals to refurbish the ailing Palace of Westminster, including a plan that could cost almost 40bn and take 61 years to complete. The project team has warned delaying the restoration of the historic building, which costs 1.5m a week to maintain, would lead to "an expensive managed decline of the Palace".

The reason for that is simple: the British state is big and getting bigger but as an agent of change it is not up to the job. This is true at both central and local levels. Over the years, the capacity of government to intervene has been pared back and professional expertise has been lost as council services have been outsourced.

Civil service morale rose slightly after Labour took power in 2024, with the biggest jumps in satisfaction in the energy and health departments, an annual Whitehall monitor report will show. The survey from the Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank, due to be published this week, found that morale rose from 60.7 to 61.2% on the civil service employee engagement index. This is a composite measure that captures civil servants' feelings about how things are done in their organisation, and their pride in where they work.

Robert Jenrick's media plan for his defection to Reform reportedly refers to him as the new sheriff in town and the biggest defection story Nigel Farage's party has ever had. The leaked plan references the defection of the former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi on Monday, signalling that it was prepared in recent days. Jenrick has conceded that he was resolved to switch to Reform before Kemi Badenoch fired him.

Kemi Badenoch's recent ridiculing of the prime minister over a supposed U-turn on digital ID plans (Keir Starmer denies change to digital ID plan is yet another U-turn, 14 January) is the latest example of a frustratingly narrow view of leadership. To the Conservative leader, adapting a policy is a sign of no sense of direction; to those of us who work in product management, it looks like necessary iteration of the process.

He said performance indicators for senior officials would be set by ministers and those civil servants not meeting expectations would be shown the door. Instead of the sideways shimmy to another team or department if you fail to perform, I'm afraid you will be sacked, he said, adding that the doers, not the talkers would be in line for promotion.

Morgan McSweeney has dramatically quit as Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff, after mounting scrutiny over his role in Lord Mandelson's appointment as the UK's ambassador to the US. The PM's adviser had been coming under pressure after pushing for the former minister to be given the job, despite the peer's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein being publicly known about at the time.

The prime minister sought to rally his cabinet on Tuesday, telling them to ignore the polls and to prepare to take on Nigel Farage's Reform UK. But sources said that in a presentation by chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, ministers were told the government needed to gain back voters' trust with three Es, emotion, empathy and evidence. One source said McSweeney warned that the government had a deficit in emotion, though a No 10 source denied he had used that phrase.