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Jill Rutter

Jill Rutter

@jillongovt.bsky.social

32K followers 350 following 930 posts

Senior Fellow, Institute for Government and still doing bits for UK in a Changing Europe. Cricket fan and (not very good) tennis player.

Jill Rutter is a former British civil servant. She is a senior research fellow of UK in a Changing Europe, and was previously the programme director at the Institute for Government (IfG) directing the organisation's work on better policy making and Brexit. She has written a number of reports on civil service and the implications of Brexit for Whitehall and Westminster. .. more

Political science 38%

Education 17%

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Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 2d

good one.. lik eit..

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

Maybe I should draw a parallel with how you will be spending your Xmas/New year? But no.........

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

Anyway, here's hoping for an England win at the Boxing Day test.....

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

9, But at the moment they have managed to disillusion a lot of people who invested hope in them. Its not enough just to rely on weakened opposition and assume you will just be good enough and refuse to adapt to new conditions.

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

8. Now we have two embattled leaders who realise their positions are under threat, but want to hold on and see off challengers. To do that, McCullum needs England to win the next two tests ... and Starmer needs to convince people that he is capable of delivering some real "change".

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

7. and both have been undermined by long-term structural weaknesses - the UK economy since the crash, Brexit and covid.. or the completely bonkers structure of the English cricket season...

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

6. Of course both have had patches of good play. Some individuals have enhanced their reputations - Archer has bowled and batted well. Stokes shown grit. Labour could point to Mahmood, Rayner making progress on planning before her fall. A reasonable spending round. Successful (Ish) diplomacy.

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

5. Root (not Joe) cause in both cases was inadequate prep. Both stuck with established teams but ones untested in govt/Australia conditions. Both thought they had prepared well.. but they hemmed themselves in by poor decisions - Labour on tax commitments, England by having zero prep in Australia

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

4. and then dig deeper.. After being outplayed in Brisbane have a golf break/stag do in Noosa. In the govt's case after ineptly handling the winter fuel allowance, follow up by rushing poorly thought through cuts to disability benefits in another fiscal panic..

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

3. The govt/England compounded their woes by doubling down and being undone by arrogance. Did not listen to critics on the challenge of pink ball cricket at Brisbane. Starmer seemed to refuse to believe that anyone would have any problems with his govt having ethical lapses. Hubris....

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

2. But then England/Rachel Reeves threw their wickets away. England had a mid-order collapse.. these are supposed to be the solid guys you can rely on. Reeves was supposed to be the rock of the govt. But she holed the govt under the waterline with a panicky reaction to her "fiscal audit"

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

1. Both started OK.. Starmer had a good July. Looked confident at first presser.. Visits to devolveds. Good first international outings. Just as it was all going quite well at lunchtime on Day 2 in Perth.

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3d

Lots of parallels between #Ashes defeat and what Labour voters in 2024 are feeling about the govt right now.. "its the hope that kills you". "It was supposed to be different this time". you wait 15 years for a win in Australia/regain power and then it all falls to pieces super quickly

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Institute for Government @instituteforgovernment.org.uk · 4d

PODCAST 🎙️ 2025 in review: Starmer's year of drama

The IfG team and the FT's @chris-smyth.bsky.social pick out the big moments of the last 12 months – the big political developments, and the key appointments that could shape the year ahead www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/insi...

2025 in review: Starmer's year of drama | Institute for Government

The IfG team and the Financial Times’s public policy editor Chris Smyth look back on an eventful 12 months and pick out the big moments of 2025.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 4d

Air passenger duty is a terribly designed tax - my substack this week (£/free trial) sets out how to sort it out timleunig.substack.com/p/air-passen...

Reposted by Chris Hanretty, Jill Rutter

Cassia Rowland @cassiarowland.bsky.social · 6d

An extremely poor look for the government. As our devolution team argued about delays to mayoral elections, it looks like either “the government fundamentally misunderstood the scale of the task it had set itself, or that the decision may have been made for…partisan advantage”

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Nick Davies @njdavies.bsky.social · 7d

Have you ever read the Public Services Performance Tracker published by @instituteforgovernment.org.uk? If so, we’d love to hear from you. We’re surveying readers to find out what is most useful and what we should prioritise next year. It will only take around 5 mins to complete

Performance Tracker Survey 2025/2026

Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.

www.surveymonkey.com

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Institute for Government @instituteforgovernment.org.uk · 7d

NEW | How can the government ensure inquiries are set up to succeed?

Early decisions can set inquiries off on the wrong path. Our report makes a series of recommendations for reforms designed to ensure inquiries are fit for purpose www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

How can the government ensure inquiries are set up to succeed? | Institute for Government

Early decisions can set inquiries off on the wrong path.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Reposted by Simon Usherwood, Jill Rutter

UK in a Changing Europe @ukandeu.bsky.social · 9d

"The really interesting thing is where this sits within the wider reset? 🇬🇧🇪🇺

Why have they concluded this agreement now, which is something the EU is very keen on, and are they actually landing some of the UK's big objectives?"

🎙️ @jillongovt.bsky.social on the deal to reoopen Erasmus to UK students

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 9d

agreed.. do you think UK right to agree Erasmus terms now? should we not get a bit smarter on linkage?

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 9d

The good thing about this is that it gives a bit more of a sense of an agreed timetable which was the big missing in the May Common Understanding... but of course, the date for the next UK-EU summit has not been fixed.

Simon Usherwood @simonusherwood.bsky.social · 9d

Let's go through the Eramus statement together

1/

ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Steve Peers, David Phinnemore , and 2 more Richard S.J. Tol, Steve Peers, David Phinnemore, Jill Rutter, Nicolai von Ondarza

Simon Usherwood @simonusherwood.bsky.social · 9d

Let's go through the Eramus statement together

1/

ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Daniel Howes @howesdaniel.bsky.social · 10d

1/ The latest ONS data on public sector employment shows that the civil service has grown (again).

After 2 consecutive quarters of plateauing growth, the CS grew in Q3 by 3490 (0.6%) to 520440 FTE. This is the highest quarterly increase since Labour came to power.

@instituteforgovernment.org.uk

A line chart from the Institute for Government showing the size of the civil service in full-time equivalent terms, from 2009 to 2025. The size decreases from 2009 to 2016, before increasing more or less continuously from then to now.

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 10d

and former official head of govt comms, @simonbaugh.bsky.social - in partnership with Vuelio

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 10d

as Trump throws a $ 10bn lawsuit at the BBC, @instituteforgovernment.org.uk picked a good day to discuss the President's impact on communications - with Katy Balls from @thetimes.com @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social @alexgathomas.bsky.social - sign up www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/trump-...

The Trump challenge: Chaos, confusion and government communications | Institute for Government

Alastair Campbell, Katy Balls and Simon Baugh join us to discuss the impact of Trump’s unpredictable approach to facts, accuracy and communication

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 12d

One of the upsides of Brexit was that politicians would not be able to use “Brussels doesn’t let us” as a pretext for their own indecision

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 15d

Fair Pay Agreements (or FPAs) were implemented in New Zealand... then repealed a year later.

@nehaldavison.bsky.social, who was involved in their design, explains what the UK can learn from this unsuccessful attempt to improve pay and conditions in sectors like adult social care.

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Institute for Government @instituteforgovernment.org.uk · 15d

Read the latest Ministers Reflect where our IfG team interviewed former chancellor Sajid Javid on his views on Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings.

To read more:
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/press-releas...

Reposted by Jill Rutter

Cassia Rowland @cassiarowland.bsky.social · 15d

For any home affairs/justice journos out there, I've done some modelling on the likely impact of the government's proposed changes to jury trials and how much time/money it will save overall. Numbers are *extremely* striking so drop me a DM if you might be interested in an exclusive!

Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 15d

This should be a great event... What can govt communicators do when Trump blows up their grid on a daily basis. Have we now normalised ignoring facts and is politics just performance art? Does our system of government have any protections if someone followed populist playbook?

Institute for Government @instituteforgovernment.org.uk · 15d

WEBINAR | The Trump challenge: Chaos, confusion and government communications

@alastaircampbell2.bsky.social and @simonbaugh.bsky.social will join us to discuss the impact of Trump’s unpredictable approach to facts, accuracy and communication.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/trump-...