Robert Pyper
@BPyper
Emeritus Prof Govt & Public Policy. Music (Newman to Wagner via Bush), literature (Powell to Bulgakov via Spark), theatre, politics, sport.
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With Oscar the Springer, rewarded with fine views as the mist cleared on this morning's climb up Arran's Goat Fell. Keeps things in proper perspective ... #Arran #SpringerSpaniels
Devolution's catalogue of failures continues to grow. The UK Covid-19 inquiry evidences governance breakdown in Edinburgh (Cabinet, Parliament, accountability - missing in action), an incompetent First Minister running a catastrophic show with her political and official cronies.
Two BBC 'leaders' have paid the price for presiding over organisational and policy capture by activist staff. Other public bodies, including the civil service and NHS boards, suffer from the same malaise.
This is one of the clearest and most unflinching pieces I’ve read on the reality of devolution after 25 years. @BPyper lays out what too many in public life are unwilling to say out loud - ie - That Scotland’s political culture has become stuck in a cycle of empty rhetoric,…
🖊️Scotland has been failed by devolution, but our political class have no appetite for an alternative approach - read academic @BPyper's excoriating analysis for @MailOnlineScot dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1… #indyref2 #politics #scottish #scotland #comment
Appreciate being given space by @GrahamGGrant to set out some thoughts on the failure of the current model of Scottish devolution. It is unfortunate (but not surprising) that the political, cultural and academic elites here continue to ignore the lack of clothes on the emperor.
🖊️Scotland has been failed by devolution, but our political class have no appetite for an alternative approach - read academic @BPyper's excoriating analysis for @MailOnlineScot dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1… #indyref2 #politics #scottish #scotland #comment
Scottish devolution on the current model is a study in failure.
✍️ ‘In retrospect, the rhetoric of Holyrood’s driving spirits looks overblown, and, in some cases, ridiculously wide of the mark’, writes academic Robert Pyper in today’s Mail 👇 mailplus.co.uk/scottish-editi… #politics #comment #indyref2 #devolution
Excellent article in today's 'Sunday Times' by @DSanderson_85 Interesting reflections on a failing parliament from a range of sources, with a few of my own observations too. thetimes.com/article/bce38a…
Excellent blog. Once again, while the Scottish academic establishment sleeps and/or pursues its stale obsessions,@mbmpolicy are carrying out forensic analysis of key public policy issues. Here: the diffusion of accountability within the Byzantine layers of the devolved polity.
NEW BLOG: We try to answer the question of who is responsible for the decisions and costs to the public purse incurred in the case of Peggie v NHS Fife and Dr Upton. 1/2 murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2025/07/30/who…
Will a future historian write an account of the heresy hunts in the UK public sector during the early decades of the 21st century?
In a normal polity the accumulated evidence (written and oral) of gross incompetence revealed by the Peggie Tribunal, plus today's bizarre Board statement would already be sufficient for the adults in the room act by placing NHS Fife in special measures, and removing the Board.
Is there one of those 'laws' of organisational behaviour which captures the following: poor leadership begets weak governance, which seeps downwards. Scottish Government's culture of minimal note-taking and 'can't recall' responses has permeated the public sector. #NHSFife
Always good to work with @johnconnolly747 and delighted to see our chapter on the political and crisis management strategies of Sunak and Starmer published in the new book edited by Jennifer Lees-Marshment and Ioannis Zisis on the 2024 UK General Election.
New chapter out today by @BPyper & myself in a new book by J Lee-Marshment & I Zisis that focuses on the political management of the 2024 UK Election. Our chapter examines the pre-election leadership campaigns of K Starmer & R Sunak 👀link.springer.com/book/10.1007/9… @CaledonianNews
Today's Supreme Court judgement marks yet another spectacular policy failure for the political and cultural establishment in the dysfunctional devolved polity. This should (but probably won't) bring to an end a period of privileged access and policy capture by ideologues.
Devolution has not been particularly kind to any of the key institutions in Scotland, but the education and legal systems, previously emblematic of a certain quality, have fared especially badly. Both are now seriously damaged.
A timely reminder that the failures of preening, incompetent politicians have consequences for public services. We visitors reorganising trips from Arran today are inconvenienced, but the ongoing impact on islanders' lives and businesses is unacceptable. telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/1…
With only a few honourable exceptions, the behaviour of leading figures in the political class of a failing devolved polity has plumbed new depths in recent days. Entirely predictable, but utterly depressing all the same.
Outstanding concert (Wagner and Bruckner) from the orchestra of @ScottishOpera in Ayr last night. Conductor Gabriella Teychenne and musicians in fine form.
This thread captures the nature and consequences of incompetence and poor leadership in a dysfunctional organisation.
One of the many issues in this case is the complete loss of institutional competence. It’s obvious this was an issue that required careful thought, and the decision maker sought advice not from, heaven forfend, a lawyer, but from a very junior equality and diversity officer.
Deployed with forensic effect in an employment tribunal today.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
Perhaps not high in the set of issues attracting interest today, but might we hope that the pseudo-sciences of opinion polling and psephology are subject to greater challenge in future? The mystique surrounding these modern readers of chicken entrails needs to be punctured.
We are living in an era when the 'achievements' of political campaigners and activists are lauded, despite their appalling records in government and their failures across all key areas of public policy.
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