The failure of the FiReControl project
The failure of the FiReControl project

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-09-20

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 9780215561541

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FiReControl was an ambitious project with the objectives of improving national resilience, efficiency and technology by replacing the control room functions of 46 local Fire and Rescue Services in England with a network of nine purpose-built regional control centres using a national computer system. The project was launched in 2004, but following a series of delays and difficulties, was terminated in December 2010 with none of the original objectives achieved and a minimum of £469 million being wasted. The Department attempted, without sufficient mandatory powers, to impose a single, national approach on locally accountable Fire and Rescue Services who were reluctant to change the way they operated. There were no basic project approval checks and balances - decisions were taken before a business case, project plan or procurement strategy had been developed and tested. The result was hugely unrealistic forecast costs and savings, naève over-optimism on the deliverability of the IT solution and under-appreciation or mitigation of the risks. Fundamentals of project management were absent: the centres were constructed and completed whilst there was considerable delay in even awarding the IT contract, let alone developing the essential IT infrastructure. There was a high turnover of senior managers although none have been held accountable for the failure. The IT contract went to a company with no direct experience of supplying the emergency services. £84.8 million is now earmarked to meet the project's original objectives, to improve resilience, efficiency and interoperability within the Fire and Rescue Service but there is no certainty this will provide value for money.

The Economic Basis of Class Conflict (LFB)
The Economic Basis of Class Conflict (LFB)

Author: Lionel Robbins

Publisher: Laissez Faire Books

Published:

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 1621290867

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Lionel Robbins (1898–1984) is most famous for his leading role in shaping the London School of Economics in the interwar years, and also for his remarkable body of scholarship. The reader will see why when reading through this wonderful collection of articles published in 1939. It is newly published through Laissez Faire for the first time since those days. Normal.dotm 0 0 1 324 1851 Marcus Editorial 15 3 2273 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Robbins was writing at the end of a terrible decade of depression and upheaval, and just before the war-planning state came to be the central planner of the world’s economies from 1940 onward. We discover him here in the last period of his status as a leading defender of free markets. He is directing his arguments not only Keynes and not only against socialists but also against the defenders of capitalistic monopoly and the redistributionist state. His arguments are fresh and passionate — a model of consistency and clarity on topic after topic. The opening essay is a great example. In "The Economic Basis of Class Conflict," Robbins reasserts the classical-liberal wisdom that, in a free society, there are no natural conflicts between groups — and certainly none that need to be remedied through state intervention. Rather, conflicts occur between individuals, and these are not intractable but managed best through the rule of law. Any state measures to fix such conflicts engender more conflict and create damages on both the taxed party and the group that is the target of the benefit. Robbins specifically mentions how fake conflicts between classes, races, and sexes end up tearing society apart. This whole essay, then, becomes a response not just to Marxism but to the entire anti-liberal tendencies of modern statecraft. As the book proceeds, we find defenses of market freedom in the areas of trade, competition, price controls, countercyclical policy, and even patents. On patents in particular, Robbins has some wonderful analysis that anticipates all the modern criticisms of policies that grant industrial monopolies and slow down growth. It’s almost unbelievable that he could have been so prescient in 1939, long before patents became a source of stagnation in so many industries from pharmaceuticals to software. Lord Robbins is our teacher now and forever. To search for titles from Laissez Faire Books, enter a keyword and LFB; e.g., Economics LFB

Fighting the Flames - A Tale of the London Fire Brigade
Fighting the Flames - A Tale of the London Fire Brigade

Author: Robert Michael Ballantyne

Publisher: Read Books Ltd

Published: 2017-09-19

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1528780051

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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Technical Rescue Operations, Volume II
Technical Rescue Operations, Volume II

Author: Larry Collins

Publisher: PennWell Books

Published: 2005-04

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1593700202

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App. 13 : Tribute to a helicopter rescue pioneer. -- App. 14 : Two-pointer tether with life float. -- App. 15 : Two-pointer tether for lowhead dam rescue. -- App. 16 : Two-pointer tether for foot entrapment rescue. -- App. 17 : Filling 2 1/1 in. fire hose with hose rescue device. -- App. 18 : Lowhead dam rescue with hose rescue device. -- App. 19 : Bridge-based rescue using life float. -- App. 20 : Single-line self-rescue system. -- App. 21 : Double-line self-rescue system. -- App. 22 : Tripod method for shallow-water crossing. -- App. 23 : Static line or belay for shallow-water crossing. -- App. 24 : Line astern method for shallow-water crossing. -- App. 25 : Line abreast method for shallow-water crossing. -- App. 26 : Circle of support for shallow-water crossing. -- App. 27 : Shallow-water crossing with victim on backboard. -- App. 28 : Continuous-loop rescue system.