Turning the Tables: the judges

So who were the judges in The Westminster Hour's unique assessment of the ministries that make up Tony Blair's Government?

Norman Blackwell is now a Conservative member of the House of Lords. From 1995 to 1997, he worked for John Major as head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit at Downing Street. He is now the chairman of the centre-right think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies.

Internet link: Centre for Policy Studies website

Beth Egan is the deputy director of the Social Market Foundation and used to work at another think tank, Demos, and for the Fabian Society. She was involved in the Labour campaign for a Scottish Parliament and later worked for Gordon Brown.

Internet link: Social Market Foundation website

Sir Peter Kemp is a career civil servant, rising to become Second Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office. A former member of the Audit Commission, he is now a leading commentator and was the co-author of 'A Better Machine: Government for the 21st Century".

Ruth Lea is the head of policy at the Institute of Directors. An economist by training, she spent 16 years in the civil service at the Treasury at the Department of Trade and Industry and is now a member of the council of Business for Sterling.

Internet link: Institute of Directors website

Sir Michael Lyons is now the head of the Institute of Local Government Studies at Birmingham University. Before that, he was the chief executive of Birmingham City Council, the largest unitary local authority in the country. He also ran Nottinghamshire and Wolverhampton.

Internet link: Institute of Local Government Studies, Birmingham University, website

John MacGregor spent nine years in the Conservative cabinets of Thatcher and Major - as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Agriculture Minister, Education Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Transport Secretary. He continued as an MP until 2001.

Andrew Rawnsley is the presenter of The Westminster Hour. He co-presented Channel 4's A Week in Politics. Now chief political columnist and Associate Editor of The Observer, he is the author of 'Servants of the People', the inside story of New Labour's first years in power.

Matthew Taylor is the director of the centre-left think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, and was Labour's assistant general secretary and director of policy during its first term in power. He is a frequent commentator in the media on public policy issues.

Internet link: Institute for Public Policy Research website

Tony Travers works in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics, where he is the director of the Greater London Group. He is an expert on relations between Britain's central government and local councils and a frequent broadcaster and author.

Internet link: London School of Economics and Political Science website

Martin Weale has been the director of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research since 1995 and also served as a member of Kenneth Clarke's Panel of Independent Forecasters during the last two years of the Conservative government.

Internet link: National Institute for Economic and Social Research website

Shirley Williams served as a Labour cabinet minister, in charge of consumer policy and education, during the seventies. She was one of the co-founders of the new Social Democratic Party and is now the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords.

Tony Wright has been the Labour MP for Cannock in Staffordshire since 1992. He is now the chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee of the House of Commons, which monitors the work of departments across government.

Internet link: House of Commons Public Adminstration Committee web pages