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Colin Talbot is professor of government and public administration at MBS. He writes 'Whitehall Watch' in a personal capacity. Colin’s Tweets
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Colin’s latest book
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IJPA is edited by Colin Talbot, Richard Common, Farhad Hossain and Carole Talbot, at the University of Manchester. Comment is free…
Please feel free to comment and especially to add your own analyses or experiences. Just click on a blog and go to the comment section at the bottom. Or you can email me at colin.talbot@mbs.ac.uk-
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Top Posts
- Who Do You Think You Are?
- ‘Poor Performers’ in the Civil Service - blame the poor bloody infantry
- Civil Service Accountability and the CS Code
- Surpluses, Budgets, Parliament, and Accountability Down Under (Australia): some random thoughts
- The 50% tax rate and Mr Osborne's Department for Obfuscation (sorry, HMRC)
- Andy Coulson and and his non 'Developed Vetting' - why on earth did the Civil Service let this happen?
- Greek Deficit and Tax Evasion
- Civil Service Accountability: Who Guards the Guardians?
- Jeremy Hunt (DCMS) debacle raises again the issue of Civil Service Reform
- Spending Review 2012 - maybe
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Discussion
- Lucy Jeynes on Who Do You Think You Are?
- Pamela Bottomley on Business has forfeited the confidence of the Government and can win it back only by working harder
- Captains – if not the kings – depart « Integrity Talking Points on ‘Poor Performers’ in the Civil Service – blame the poor bloody infantry
- adragonsbestfriend on ‘Poor Performers’ in the Civil Service – blame the poor bloody infantry
- Colin Talbot on Who Do You Think You Are?
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Category Archives: Public Management
NHS Reform: Who’s Gonna Count the Beans?
Here’s a simple question about the NHS reforms – who’s going to count the beans? Bean counting gets a bad press, but as soon as someone fails to count the public sector beans – for which read “the taxpayers money” … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Public Management, Spending, Whitehall
4 Comments
GP Consortia will cost more to run than PCTs?
A senior PCT manager writes to tell me that they have estimated that the new GP Consortia – costing about £25-£35 per patient to run – will mean between £7-£10m for their area, whilst the current PCT costs at most … Continue reading
Posted in Public Management, Spending
4 Comments
University Fees and Muddled Motives
On this morning’s Today programme Education minister Michael Gove – reputedly a man of great intelligence – maintained that raising University tuition fees to nearly 3 times their current level for some Universities would have absolutely no effect on levels … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Public Management, Whitehall
3 Comments
What do 25% cuts look like? Like this…..
The BBC radio 4 ‘Today’ programme asked me if I’d give them an analysis of what a 25% cut in Departmental budegts would actually look like by applying it to one department: the Home Office (the interview is here if … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Politics, Public Management, Spending
2 Comments
The Budget and Public Services: it really is worse than we thought
Spending on public services is set to reduce by 25% in real terms by 2014-15 (apart from Health and International Development). One quarter of all other public services could go – that is the equivalent of around a fifth of … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Politics, Public Management, Spending
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What sort of crisis is public management in?
I’ve just been discussing with a colleague what sort of crisis we are in and what the effects for Public Management Reform are likely to be. Lots of people are discussing what the financial crisis means for public services and … Continue reading
Posted in Public Management
1 Comment
The Financial Crisis: How Economists Went Astray
from Professor Geoffrey M. Hodgson Two Nobel Laureates and over 2000 Signatories Uphold that Economists have Mistaken Mathematical Beauty for Economic Truth
Posted in Public Management
2 Comments
Recessions Come and Go
Don’t dismantle the public domain because of this latest one…. see my article in today’s Guardian. See also my brief comment on George Osborne’s ‘cull’ of Whitehall in todays Financial Times.
Posted in Performance, Public Management, Spending, Whitehall
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Will Hutton on Prime Ministerial power and public administration
In a great article in today’s Oberserver, Will Hutton reviews the origins of the current political crisis in the UK in the constitutional set-up which confers monarchical powers on Prime Ministers, something I have written about frequently here and in … Continue reading
Posted in Public Management, Whitehall
Tagged Constitution, Departments, Ministers, Prime Minister, Whitehall
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Innovation in Government (again)
Cabinet Office Minister Liam Byrne has announced a new ‘Innovation Council’ to fast-track ‘front-line’ innovation.
Posted in Public Management
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Taxation is the Price of Civilisation
In the USA there are reports of so-called ‘tea-party’ protests, modelled on the famous ‘Boston Tea Party’ protests against taxation imposed by the British government on the (then) US colonies. But the US protesters (in reality the Republicans) rather the … Continue reading
Posted in Public Management
1 Comment
Acid test for reform of public services looms
by Nicholas Timmins, Financial Times, April 16 2009 For the better part of a decade, Labour ministers have been promising a “transformation” in public services – one that would ensure Britain’s health and education systems could bear comparison with the … Continue reading
Posted in Public Management
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Big is Beautiful in “Local” Government?
This week 43 English local government bodies were merged into just nine much larger local governments. Whilst most commentators have concentrated on the implications for local democracy, which are important, they have missed the bigger picture.
Posted in Public Management
3 Comments
A ‘light touch’ in the public sector is highly unlikely now.
‘Light-touch regulation’ was very fashionable for the private sector until recently – after the banking debacle it is rapidly going out of fashion. Meanwhile the government maintains in the recent White Paper ‘Working Together‘ this is its’ policy aim for … Continue reading
Posted in Public Management
1 Comment
Budgeting for Hard Choices – in 2011
Central government current receipts in February were 9.8% lower and current spending in February was 6.5% higher than in the same month last year, the IFS reported today (19 March 2009). What a surprise. As government income drops and spending … Continue reading
Posted in Public Management, Whitehall
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New EU concept paper on Public Service Reform
A very useful new ‘concept paper‘ has just been published by the European Commission, authored mainly by UK professor Norman Flynn. Aimed at the development community, it will nevertheless be of interest to all scholars and practitioners of public management.
Posted in Public Management
Tagged Civil Service, government, public services, reform
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Efficiency savings urged to ease pain of cuts
from the FT - By Nicholas Timmins Published: March 10 2009 00:39 | Last updated: March 10 2009 00:39
Rate your doctor on-line? – another Whitehall-centric initiative
Even when the Government claims to be ‘empowering patients’ it manages to do it in a Whitehall-centric way.
Posted in Public Management, Whitehall
Tagged NHS, performance, public services, spending, Whitehall
3 Comments
Modernising Government Mk II: ‘Working Together’
Back in 1999 ‘Modernising Government’ was finally published. After nearly two years gestation the general verdict was that it was indeed an elephant – huge, sprawling and ungainly. Everything including the kitchen-sink had been thrown into the lengthy, turgid and … Continue reading
Posted in Public Management
Tagged crisis, government, local government, public services, spending
3 Comments
From CPA to CAA – Local Government Gets Lost in Translation?
The Audit Commission published its final CPA (comprehensive performance assessment) report on English local government this week.
Posted in Public Management
Tagged Audit Commission, CAA, CPA, local government, performance, public services
1 Comment
Colin Talbot
