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The success of the forthcoming policy promoting health care outside hospitals will depend on achievement of fully integrated services, especially for individuals at risk of hospitalisation. Using as a case study the evaluation of a community response team, this paper argues that past attempts to achieve such service integration with frail elderly people have been short‐lived because of the impact of restructuring of the major commissioning organisations. While the effectiveness of integrated service developments can be demonstrated, the positive benefits have not been sustained, and valuable learning has been lost. By identifying key aspects of organisational memory, the paper proposes a more relationship‐focused approach to reform in which multi‐agency teams are given the time to establish personal services for vulnerable people.

Argues, despite much criticism, that the recently completed auction of 3G mobile services was the best possible basis for successful and early exploitation of 3G technologies in the UK. Discuses the benefits of auctions and the argument that high licence costs will lead to high service charges. Contests whether the 3G‐auction process in the UK was a success.

Looks at how the Labour Party in the UK re‐organized and regenerated itself between 1983 and 1992 and suggests that, as a result, the party has an over‐reliance on corporate marketing and management, to the detriment of party democracy. Also believes that overcentralization of decision making took place, particularly with regard to the reporting of market research data, a central function at the heart of modern electioneering. Discusses some of the problems which this caused and the changes which have taken place since the departure of Neil Kinnock in 1992.

This explorative paper is based on the professional career of Councillor Gill Sargeant who completed her term of office as Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet, in May 2001. This paper chronicles the life of a twenty‐first century woman living and working in a “digitally” lead age, faced with the challenges of a traditional business environment. The paper also identifies the impact of key “drivers” and “barriers” to the development of women's careers such as, childcare responsibilities, technology, gender stereotypes and family friendly policies, as faced by a modern day Mayor.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been provided with the statutory authority to demand the attendance of suspects at its offices and also to demand that information is supplied, irrespective of whether or not the suspect has been charged with a criminal offence. It has been held that the provisions of Art. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) do protect the defendant from self‐incrimination, and the UK government has been successfully challenged at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over these issues. The powers conferred on the SFO remain in place, but these must now be viewed in the context of the Human Rights Act 1998, which became law in the UK in October 2000; unless the powers of the SFO are reviewed by Parliament, it would seem to be the courts who will take responsibility in the UK for ensuring that the rights of suspects are upheld.

This article offers a personal view of the White Paper, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say, from a service user perspective. The Minister for Care Services, Liam Byrne, has stressed that the philosophy of the White Paper is based on strengthening personal control over support, prevention and the integration of health, social care and other services. This discussion examines the emphasis on health over social care in the presentation of the White Paper. It puts the document in the broader context of social care policy development over the last 20 years, and relates it to the views of service users expressed in consultations leading up to its publication. It considers the White Paper's potential ambiguity, its relation with resource issues and what next steps may be needed to take forward its positive principles.