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Colin Talbot is professor of government at the University of Manchester. He writes 'Whitehall Watch' in a personal capacity.
Colin’s Tweets
- When will the economy recover? | Blog | False Economy falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/when-will… via @FalseEcon 7 hours ago
- RT @instituteforgov: Extract from @jon_trickett speech on future of Whitehall @guardian bit.ly/16Jo0gA Video here http://t.co/fD4JE… 12 hours ago
- Bernard Jenkin MP, chair of Public Admin Select Cttee, calls for commission on future of the civil service bernardjenkinmp.com/Parliament/jen… 12 hours ago
- Visions of Subsidiarity and the Curse of the British Political Tradition wp.me/pnkIs-Kc via @colinrtalbot 13 hours ago
Colin’s latest book
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.ukTop Posts
- Visions of Subsidiarity and the Curse of the British Political Tradition
- The Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything? It’s 43.
- Lord O'Donnell Suggests .... that someone rather like him should be put in charge of vetting government policy. Seriously?
- Lies, Damned Lies and Government misuse of official statistics: Select Committee Attacks Government
- Spending Review 2013 – politics trumps planning, again.
- Andy Coulson and and his non 'Developed Vetting' - why on earth did the Civil Service let this happen?
- The UK in 2013: A Failing Economy or a Failing State?
- UKIP: Building a Party when the "Party" is Over?
- It’s Purely Academic…..
- Contact
Discussion
- colinrtalbot on Visions of Subsidiarity and the Curse of the British Political Tradition
- Brat on Lord O’Donnell Suggests …. that someone rather like him should be put in charge of vetting government policy. Seriously?
- Inquisitive Practitioner on Lord O’Donnell Suggests …. that someone rather like him should be put in charge of vetting government policy. Seriously?
- Chris Wilson on UKIP: Building a Party when the “Party” is Over?
- brian carr on UKIP: Building a Party when the “Party” is Over?
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Category Archives: Spending
Lord O’Donnell Suggests …. that someone rather like him should be put in charge of vetting government policy. Seriously?
Lord O’Donnell, former head of the civil service, has put forward some ideas for better scrutiny of proposed government policies. According to a report in Civil Service World: Among ideas to prevent “bad policies” from being introduced, [O’Donnell] said a … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Parliament, Public Administration, Spending, Whitehall
2 Comments
The Scrutiny of Public Spending: Margaret Hodge, Robert Chote, and Amyas Morse, amongst others, to discuss how Britain manages public money.
We are organising a series of debates and discussions about how Britain manages public money.
Posted in Accountability, Parliament, Public Administration, Spending, Whitehall
1 Comment
Top Twenty Whitehall Watch blog posts
Here’s the top twenty Whitehall Watch blog posts (so far) and the number of views. This doesn’t include numbers for posts that have been republished by Public Finance, Public Servant, LSE Policy and Politics and the Huffington Post.
Dave says we’re headed in the right direction, what do you think?
PM David Cameron claims we are ‘headed in the right direction’. Below are the latest headline figures from the Office of National Statistics website on the state of our national finances (so all their words, not mine, I’ve just added a … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Political Economy, Politics, Spending, Whitehall
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’You Can’t Borrow Your Way Out of a Debt Crisis’. Er, actually you can Mr Osborne. It depends….
One of George Osborne’s favourite mantra’s is the above one. Unfortunately it’s based on a rather school-boy understanding of economics. Of course everyone is familiar with the personal debt spiral. Adam and Eve enjoy the good life. They spend a … Continue reading
Posted in Political Economy, Politics, Spending, Whitehall
3 Comments
#London2012: Private Schools and Public Sports (or how I got humiliated at rugby)
The disproportionate representation of UK private schools (confusingly called ‘public schools’) amongst Britain’s Olympians has been causing some controversy. For some on the right this highlights the superiority of private sector schooling over state provision – especially as a … Continue reading
Posted in Communities, Education, Politics, Spending
4 Comments
policy@manchester launches
Public policy community comes together 12 Jul 2012 The University of Manchester has established Policy@Manchester as a network bringing together a range of academics working in a variety of public policy areas.
Surpluses, Budgets, Parliament, and Accountability Down Under (Australia): some random thoughts
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
The Public Government of Public Money – not yet, not by a long way
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 … Continue reading
Posted in Parliament, Politics, Public Administration, Spending, Whitehall
1 Comment
Lies, Damned Lies, and Government ‘Efficiency’ Savings (Again)
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
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
8 Comments
Academy Schools Funding System Fails – quelle surprise
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
Greek Deficit and Tax Evasion
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
My Big Fat Greek Government?
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
Universities and the logic of public interest
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?
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?
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?
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
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
