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Star Chamber

12 June, 2010 by James Lawther 1 Comment

George Osborne is to create a “Star Chamber” as part of his attempts to cut government spending.  It will be a committee of senior civil servants and politicians.  Ministers are invited to present their budgets to them for discussion.

If a minister gains the Star Chamber’s approval he can join the committee to “discuss” other minister’s budgets.

The Star Chamber originated in England in the middle ages as a court to enforce laws against prominent people.  The sessions were held in private without a jury or witnesses and those convicted had no right of appeal.  According to Wikipedia the Star Chamber “evolved into a political weapon and became a symbol of misuse and abuse of power“.

Interesting historical precedent Mr Osborne has chosen for his management model.

Star Chamber

Image by TheoJunior

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Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: bureaucracy, compliance, cost saving, decisions, empowerment, government

About the Author

James Lawther
James Lawther

James Lawther is a middle-aged, middle manager.

To reach this highly elevated position he has worked in numerous industries, from supermarket retailing to tax collecting.  He has had several operational roles, including running the night shift in a frozen pea packing factory and carrying out operational research for a credit card company.

As you can see from his C.V. he has either a wealth of experience or is incapable of holding down a job.  If the latter is true this post isn’t worth a minute of your attention.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to read it and decide for yourself.

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Comments

  1. Tom Schur says

    15 August, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    I used to work for Mars and we used the same term

    Interesting to hear the historical precedent. It wasn’t much fun when we went though them.

    Reply

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