In 2008 the UK’s Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) were asked to set out the requirements for a good government. They came up with five prerequisites.

1. Good people: the need to recruit and cultivate people with the right skills and abilities to undertake the work of government effectively

2. Good process: appropriate structures, systems and procedures in place to develop and implement policies successfully

3. Good accountability: adequate arrangements for holding both elected and appointed officials to account for their decisions and actions

4. Good performance: effective performance assessment to identify how well government is meeting its objectives and where it could improve

5. Good standards: high ethical standards exhibited by people in public life, underpinned by robust ethical regulation and strong ethical leadership

These are five good measurements to consider when looking at your candidates for this election.

Further questions to consider when picking your candidates… How do they measure up? Can they deliver? Will they make this new government stronger? Will they represent your views?

Below are further recommendations again there are resonances for this island. The highlights are mine.

•  Encouraging a tighter, clearer focus in government, which might for example involve reducing the number of government ministers;
•  Greater focus on achieving good standards of basic administration, as opposed to responding to media and political pressures to take new initiatives or introduce new laws;
•  Ensuring that civil service recruitment and promotion processes emphasise the development of operational and delivery skills among civil servants as much as policy advice skills
•  Decentralising power wherever possible, in order to empower frontline public service workers and citizens and to ensure that decisions are made at the most appropriate level;
•  Promoting more thorough and considered processes for making policies and laws, including effective parliamentary pre- and post-legislative scrutiny;
•  Greater clarity about the roles and responsibilities of ministers and civil servants, so that accountability at the highest levels of government is well-defined and understood;
•  Co-ordinating the work of government so that the right balance is struck between having an effective corporate centre and allowing departments sufficient autonomy to operate successfully;
•  Establishing an independent body with the powers to assess and promote effective performance in government, ideally by changing the remit and operation of the National Audit Office; and
•  Fostering strong ethical leadership to promote high standards in public life, as well as transparent, independent and accountable ethical regulation.