Dealing with Change

This report was prepared by Lindsay Moore

The world is changing fast, and there are some individuals who seek to influence the direction and speed of this change. Charles Clarke, the former Secretary of State for Education and Skills and Home Secretary in the Blair Government, who is now a Visiting Professor at the University of East Anglia, is one of those individuals. On 6 May 2011, he spoke about dealing with change at the first Cambridge Public Policy Seminar.

Change, he argued, is always happening, and is speeding up. He characterised some of the major challenges in the policymaking process that can relegate government policies to what he coined the “Too Difficult Box”. These challenges include:

• identifying policy problems and solutions
• recognising challenges to implementation
• overcoming opposition
• working with national and international law
• passing a proposal through Parliament
• maintaining the energy, creativity, and vitality necessary to drive change forward.

While dealing with change is not easy, he offered three suggestions that could help. First, he argued, there must be more engagement from academia with policy. Although often daunting, he urged researchers submit their research not only to peer review scrutiny, but also scrutiny by media, politics and public opinion.

Second, the relationship of the media with policy issues must improve. Those in the media must accept that they do no just report on the news, but also profoundly impact public opinion. Too often the media acts primarily as a cheerleader for the opposition.

Finally, there is a need for more courageous leadership from Parliament. Politicians need to be willing and ready to take on difficult issues and not cast them aside in the “Too Difficult Box”.

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