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The topic of whistleblowing is achieving prominence as a question of social policy. Some influential voices are suggesting that far from whistleblowing — informing on organisations —, being socially undesirable, it may in certain circumstances be an activity deserving high praise. Inevitably it entails huge risks to the activist, and these risks need to be personally and carefully considered. John Banham, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, wrote in support of the Social Audit report on the subject (Winfield 1990), and a committee established by the Speaker of the House of Commons has suggested the possibility of honouring whistleblowers in the British Honours system for their good corporate citizenship. There have also been landmark reports in America, Australia and Canada (Leahy 1978, Electoral and Administrative Review Commission 1990, Ontario Law Reform Commission 1986).

Europe′s social charter must be a charter for enhanced competitiveness and not a recipe for protectionism and missed employment opportunities. This article argues for a much improved social charter offering incentive and not restriction. The foundation of the employers′ vision is a Europe of growth and enterprise, sharing prosperity, experience and talent.

The European Charter of Fundamental Social Rights is discussed and the view expressed that it represents a missed opportunity. Employers in Europe oppose the draft of the Charter in its present form and do not believe that demolishing barriers within Europe will automatically prove beneficial to employers and employees alike. While opposing the rudiments of the Charter, employers do favour the recognition of fundamental social rights. The shortcomings of the Charter are highlighted and an alternative vision for an open, free and competitive Europe is presented.

A review in depth of Policy Studies Issue 13:1 considering the progress made to date by the Training and Enterprise Councils in the UK. It provides an informed and valuable backdrop to the varied and interesting papers which go to make up this special issue. The papers consider the TECs from a variety of perspectives and are themselves considered from the standpoint of an adviser to their Boards and senior management teams. Argues that this critical stage of the TECs is one which is given scant consideration in the publication and that TEC managers are frequently overstretched and under resourced. While this is a common characteristic of work in the 1990s, the committed and hard working managers and staff of TECs should not become political footballs, becoming overburdened by initiative overload but should be permitted to get on with their very important task within a realistic strategic framework.

Services for deaf and blind people are acknowledged to be generally poor. While a national task force is examining new ways to meet the needs of people with disabilities, this paper surveys the national picture and argues for the introduction of regional co‐ordination.

A number of internal and external pressures in UK local government have led to the examination of different options for internal organisation and management. A particular pressure has recently been the reorganisation of local government towards the creation of new unitary local councils. The review of non‐metropolitan local government from 1992 to 1996, and the creation of unitary authorities in a number of areas from 1995 to 1998, forced local authorities to examine their own organisation. This article considers the impact of local government reorganisation on the structures and management of the organisations concerned. The discussion concentrates upon pressures towards centralisation and decentralisation. The extent to which structural reorganisation has led local government to “decentralise” is considered in a number of senses: the expansion of the parish and community council level, changes to internal management, and area‐based initiatives. Drawing directly from current research, the authors examine competing trends towards decentralisation and centralisation and, specifically, identify a renewed focus upon corporate management as a whole. The importance of this new corporatism is then assessed.

As I listened recently to Alex Wilson delivering a paper on conservation I was reminded of his excellence as a lucid communicator of ideas, enthusiasm and timely sense of direction. His 1977 paper “The threshold of choice” must be one of the most frequently cited papers of recent times, and in a brief state‐of‐the‐art article on systematic bookstock management, Nick Moore has called the paper “seminal”. The concept of managing stock is a central element in Wilson's thinking, though he establishes its critical interaction with the management of all resources. This interaction may appear obvious but critics of a systematic stock management approach persist in attacking it for lacking properties and objectives which it cannot, by definition, have nor aspire to: as McClellan pointed out, and Moore re‐iterates, it is a sub‐system operating within the context of a greater whole, not an isolated system. The approach may nonetheless be regarded as subversive partly because it potentially challenges what may have become comfortable assumptions, partly because its adoption presupposes changes in methods and attitudes, the influence of which is likely to extend in all directions. Wilson is able to indicate this practical and conceptual influence in a way which speaks directly to the needs of UK public libraries without appearing to threaten the fabric of their existence.

FOR TOTALLY DIFFERENT reasons, two quite different groups of experts have been forecasting dire trouble in store for British businessmen in the foreseeable future.

By the end of 1992 many of the barriers which still hinder trade between the European states will have gone. This article surveys recent developments in the European Community and economic adjustments in response to integration; summarising the other articles in this issue, which consider aspects such as the social charter, labour mobility and unemployment/employment predictions.