Category Archives: Spending

Surpluses, Budgets, Parliament, and Accountability Down Under (Australia): some random thoughts

Posted on May 19, 2012 by

I am in Australia as “Accenture-Crawford School Distinguished Visiting Professor” at Australian National University in Canberra. Many thanks to both Accenture and the excellent Crawford School of Public Policy. I’ve been doing a fascinating series of meetings, seminars and lectures … Continue reading →

Posted in International, Political Economy, Public Administration, Public Management, Spending, Whitehall | Leave a comment

The Public Government of Public Money – not yet, not by a long way

Posted on March 19, 2012 by

Three decades ago two American academics published a superb analysis of the way in which British government’s made finance decisions provocatively entitled “The Private Government of Public Money” (Heclo and Wildavsky, 1981). Has the Coalition accidentally given birth to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Parliament, Politics, Public Administration, Spending, Whitehall | 1 Comment

Lies, Damned Lies, and Government ‘Efficiency’ Savings (Again)

Posted on February 17, 2012 by

It is nice to see that the new lot are just the same as the old lot, at least when it comes to reporting so-called “efficiency” or “waste” savings. Today Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude was telling anyone who would … Continue reading →

Posted in Performance, Public Administration, Spending, Whitehall | 1 Comment

The Work Programme: individual versus systemic outcomes

Posted on February 8, 2012 by

The government is very proud of its Work Programme. It is especially proud of the fact that the WPs private sector providers are only paid on the basis of individual outcomes – do the participants get a “long term” job.

Posted in Public Administration, Spending, Whitehall | 3 Comments

My Top Ten (most read) WhitehallWatch posts of 2011 (so far)

Posted on December 22, 2011 by
Posted in International, Performance, Political Economy, Politics, Public Administration, Public Management, Spending, Whitehall | Leave a comment

Academy Schools Funding System Fails – quelle surprise

Posted on December 8, 2011 by

I have been predicting for some time that some of the big structural changes to public services are likely to destabilise the financial systems in health, education and local government. So it comes as no surprise that tens of millions … Continue reading →

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Greek Deficit and Tax Evasion

Posted on November 10, 2011 by

One issue that keeps coming up around the Greek crisis is the degree of tax evasion. In the slide below I report the average Greek budget deficit per year on a decade by decade basis since the 1960s (figures on … Continue reading →

Posted in International, Political Economy, Politics, Public Administration, Spending | 2 Comments

My Big Fat Greek Government?

Posted on November 7, 2011 by

The Greek crisis has given neo-liberals a a great opportunity to criticize ‘big government’ Hellenic style – they see the problem as a Big Fat Greek Government (apologies to the film of nearly that name). But as usual the truth … Continue reading →

Posted in International, Politics, Public Administration, Public Management, Spending | 2 Comments

Universities and the logic of public interest

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

  My trade union, UCU, is campaigning against the establishment of “private” universities in the UK. They have a point about the way in which this is being done, which is in my view with reckless disregard for quality and … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Public Management, Spending, Whitehall | 1 Comment

Why Greece is a Basket Case?

Posted on June 28, 2011 by

An excellent analysis over @ flipchartfairlytales which shows that the root of the Greek crisis is the failure of tax collection and the size of the shadow economy. My comment was:

Posted in International, Public Management, Spending, Whitehall | 1 Comment

Mis-Placing NHS Funds?

Posted on June 15, 2011 by

The NHS has traditionally been organized, like most public services, on the basis of place. This has been both a control and a planning mechanism. It is a planning mechanism because it uses available information about the demographic and health … Continue reading →

Posted in Public Management, Spending, Whitehall | 7 Comments

NHS Reform: Who’s Gonna Count the Beans?

Posted on April 4, 2011 by

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

Big Society versus Big State – unpicking a myth

Posted on March 8, 2011 by

The current debate in the UK about the  “Big Society” has been marred by some unfortunate mythology about to what extent the “Big Society” already exists, whether it is growing or shrinking, and whether it is counter-posed to the “Big … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Spending, Whitehall | 1 Comment

GP Consortia will cost more to run than PCTs?

Posted on January 20, 2011 by

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

Localisation of the Bill

Posted on December 13, 2010 by

Today we have seen clearly what “localism” means for the Coalition government: localising the bill for the financial and economic crisis caused not by government – central or local – but by the banks.

Posted in Politics, Spending, Whitehall | 1 Comment

Smaller Desk, Sir Humphrey? Reality imitates TV…

Posted on August 2, 2010 by

The Daily Telegraph reports that Treasury civil servants are being expected to squeeze up a bit and use less floor space and smaller desks as part of Whitehall’s efficiency drive. Continue reading →

Posted in Spending, Whitehall | 2 Comments

Monster Cuts versus Alien Reforms

Posted on August 2, 2010 by

All pretence that the Coalition government is merely trying to sort out the country’s public finances is long gone. It is a Liberal Conservative government, in the 19th century sense of wanting a small, liberal, state with the minimum of compassion for the ‘deserving poor’ Continue reading →

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OBR: Dead Duck Waddling?

Posted on July 9, 2010 by

The Financial Times has now established that OBR “massaged” the employment figures it so helpfully produced for David Cameron last week… see here. By inserting some completely invented assumptions about possible future government policy, OBR trimmed 175,000 public sector job … Continue reading →

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What do 25% cuts look like? Like this…..

Posted on June 23, 2010 by

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

Posted on June 22, 2010 by

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 | Leave a comment