Thursday, December 9, 1999
The head of the British Council, Paul Faircloth, emails me and asks me to write a two-page summary for the Foreign Office about my paper’s application in the U.S. It is easy enough to write, but I wish I had known about it sooner. Hopefully, I can get it done tomorrow as I leave for London on Monday.
I attend my last Thursday lecture. A woman from the London Borough of Merton speaks on…what else? Best Value; a practitioner’s perspective. I skip going to the pub and work my paper! I work until 11:00 PM.
- In today’s news: The French government has enraged ministers and farmers in Britain by ruling that a ban on the import of British beef is to stay in force, flouting an EU ruling. The crisis, which has united British farmers, consumers, and politicians in anger, has dragged on for nearly five months. Tony Blair has condemned France as “completely and totally wrong” for refusing to lift the ban on British beef. Mr. Blair said France would “suffer the consequences” of its decision. “British beef is as safe as beef from anywhere else in Europe. That is not just my view, that is the unanimous view of the EU’’s senior scientific advisors,” he concluded.
Tony said to me this morning, “We are at war with France.” He has not bought any French products since this whole thing started this summer. He said when I go to Paris, I should ask for British beef.
Friday, December 10, 1999
I spend the day writing my piece for the foreign office and working on my footnotes. The footnotes are taking more time than the writing.
I have dinner with Saroj at a Tandoori restaurant in Hall Green. Saroj explains that traditional Tandoori is done in Indian clay pots. The pots are always hot and you continually add whatever meat or vegetables you have with spices. For the Naan, which you use to scoop up the food in the place of utensils, the cook rolls out the dough and sticks it to the outside of the pot, which is so hot the bread cooks very quickly.
Saroj who is from Scotland (she is second generation British) tells me the real way to make shortbread. Take a pound of butter, not cut up. Pile your flour/sugar mixture beside the butter. Slowly and gently work the whole pound of butter into the flour. She says it will melt in your mouth. Of course, too, she says, “It’s very fattening.” I need to check this out with Aunt Liz who was born in Scotland and makes shortbread from a traditional recipe.
We have a wonderful meal. Saroj orders for us. The Butter Chicken Tikki and a spinach and cheese Balti dish are delicious. But I adore the Prawn Puri—so many spices and flavors―not hot. I have never had anything like it, and I won’t again until a trip to Ireland many years later. It is not anything I can find in Indian restaurants in the U.S. or at least not in Maine. Saroj brings me home and I bid her farewell. I wish I could have gotten to know her better. She is a lovely person.
Tony is out with Lutchford when I come in and we chat. He tells me about one very demanding guest. Tony said he wouldn’t have him again. When the guy called again later and asked to book a room, Tony said, “Sorry we’re full.” They guy said, “But I haven’t told you the dates yet.” Tony says, “Yes, I know and we’re still full.” He laughs and says he enjoyed that. But he says most people are very nice and, then, “There are a very small few who are like you— ‘lovely.’ “
I am truly lucky to have found this family.
Saturday, December 11, 1999
I finish writing the two-page summary for the foreign office and do another edit of the research paper. I have lunch with Tony who gives me some vegetable soup to go with my prawn sandwich.
About 7:00 PM, I take my computer downstairs to the breakfast room. Caroline heats my cheese and onion pasty, which I eat with my salad. I eat and work on my footnotes and watch Jonathan Creek.
- In today’s news: George Mitchell has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The news says the Irish and the English welcomed the nomination.
I am proud to be from Maine.
Sunday, December 12, 1999
I spend one last day polishing the executive summary of my paper and drafting emails to send to it everyone tomorrow and I am done my fellowship project!
Here’s a bit of my introduction:
Like most governments today, the state of Maine is struggling with new demands placed upon it by its citizens. Taxpayers want a government that is modern, responsive, and cost-effective. In a world of 24-hour-services, next-day delivery of mail, and a vast internet marketplace at one’s fingertips, government seems inaccessible, slow, and outdated. Yet, we cannot abandon these seemingly bureaucratic institutions. They play a vital role in protecting our people and our public assets.
Government is not a business. Democratic decisions take time. The money government spends is not its own. The services it provides help the most vulnerable of our society. Government cannot change its strategic direction at a stroke; it cannot make spending decisions on a word from the CEO; and it cannot rely solely on the “bottom line” as its measure of success.
Government provides intangible services that would be considered an unacceptable drain on private-sector productivity. Yet, no one can doubt their value. Consider the dustman who picks up bins day-in and day-out. And for those residents he knows to be infirm, the observant worker will check to make sure the occupant is not ill or incapacitated on a day when a bin is not in its regular place on the curb. We have to ask ourselves, “How can we capture a government’s full value in assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of public services?”
We cannot run our governments like a business. We cannot provide services that always make commercial sense. But we can use modern business practices to better satisfy a sophisticated and ever-changing set of public expectations. Performance measurement is a tool to help inform government decision-making. However, the process of measuring government efficiency and effectiveness is more than identifying sterile measures, interpreting raw data, or judging the success or failure of a program. It is, most importantly, a process where we learn by asking questions about the data, where we make incremental improvements, and where we tell our citizens what we are doing so that they can determine for themselves whether they are getting value for their money.
As I write out my Christmas cards—a postcard with a snowy winter scene of Warwick Castle—and box up gifts to ship home, Caroline decorates and puts up her Christmas tree. She comes into my room looking for candles that are stored in the closets here.
My friend Lisa is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday morning and we will spend a week touring London and Paris. I email her to confirm her arrival time and finish making my hotel arrangements. Here is my travel/accommodation schedule for the rest of the year:
- Dec 13-17 – Winchester Hotel, 17 Belgrave Road, London, near Victoria station
- Dec 18-21 – Louis 2nd Hotel, Saint-Germain-des-Près district, Paris
- Dec 21-22 – Winchester Hotel – Lisa departs
- Dec 23-27 – Christmas at Glenelg
- Dec 27-Jan 4 – Millennium New Year in London – Dean’s Court Hotel, London, Bayswater
Jody’s UK Memories 