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The Future Lasts a Long Time: Public Policework and the Managerialist Paradox

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Abstract

The 1990s have the appearance of being the worst and best of times for the British police. The organization has made a sustained effort to climb back up the U-shaped curve of political legitimacy after the disastrous period of the late 1980s and early 1990s when it was exposed to searching scrutiny by the Audit Commission, the Sheehy Inquiry, internal Home Office reviews and sections of the media. The largely successful campaign by police staff associations to neutralize the reforming thrust of the proposals emanating from these scrutinies seemed to mark some sort of watershed in their relationship with the previous Conservative government and in part contributed to the reconstruction of a bipartisan consensus on the police with the main political parties emphasizing their commitment to increasing police numbers and resources. Furthermore, in 1996 the Home Secretary agreed to the police having long-handled batons and CS gas, while police criticisms of the Crown Prosecution Service, the judiciary, the laws of evidence and so-called ‘revolving door’ cautioning policies for juveniles also registered as a cause for concern with leading politicians. This however is only part of the story.

[If you could pass one law what would it be?] A law outlawing the whole phoney, corrupting, double-talk of Thatcherite-inspired ‘new managerial speak’. (Stuart Hall, 1996)

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Authors
  1. Eugene McLaughlin
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  2. Karim Murji
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northumbria, Newcastle, Australia

    Peter Francis (Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology), Pamela Davies (Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology) & Victor Jupp (Principal Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology) (Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology),  (Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology) &  (Principal Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology)

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© 1997 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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McLaughlin, E., Murji, K. (1997). The Future Lasts a Long Time: Public Policework and the Managerialist Paradox. In: Francis, P., Davies, P., Jupp, V. (eds) Policing Futures. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25980-9_4

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