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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: Spending
Transparency in British Budgets – you are joking, surely?
We were promised as part of the new politics of the new Coalition government that everything would be much more transparent. Some of this supposed new transparency is proving comical, even farcical, in nature. Publishing the COINS database of itemised … Continue reading
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There’s No Such Thing as a Free School
Free schools are not, and cannot be, “free”. They certainly won’t be free in a financial sense. The tax payer will be paying for them. All tax payers, not just the few who currently send their kids there, or may … Continue reading
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Pain with a Purpose – a preview of next week’s “Emergency” Budget
The June 22 Budget will herald major spending cuts to tackle the country’s debt crisis. But there is also a wider strategic goal, and it’s called rolling back the ‘Big State’ We are edging, slowly and hesitatingly, towards the sort … Continue reading
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The Two Armed Economist Strikes – 1st Office for Budget Responsibility Report
It was US President Harry Truman who reportedly said that he was fed-up with economists who told him “one the one hand Mr President…”, followed by “but on the other hand….”. Truman said he wanted a one-armed economist.
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Thou Shalt Not Pass On Public Debts To Future Generations – I Say, Why Not?
One of the new Commandments is “Thou shalt not accumulate public debts that have to paid off by future generations”. To which I answer, why not? Like most such axioms, any serious analysis soon shows that the Commandment isn’t quite … Continue reading
Spending Review Framework: Plus ca change
So, now we know the ‘how’ if not yet the ‘what’ of the cuts in public spending. “The Spending Review Framework” (Cm 7872) published June 8th sets out how the radical new Spending Review will operate, and it’s rather similar … Continue reading
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Cuts – you’ll have to ‘watch this space’ quite a bit longer…
A lot of media analysts and city commentators have been loosely talking about the forthcoming Budget ‘spelling out the cuts’ that were so obviously absent from the election campaign. It won’t. David Cameron has just confirmed in an interview on … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Spending
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Myths, half-myths and Spending Reviews
Sorry to be a stickler for details but a widespread myth emerged during the Election that the Labour government had “postponed” a Spending Review and “put it off until after the Election”.
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Denial about taxes and cuts and half-truths about efficiency – what an election
With the FT and IFS reports this week it is abundantly clear now to everyone what some of us have been saying for ages – this election is being fought with a big void where the truth about the public … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Spending
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Half a Million Public Sector Jobs To Go?
The CIPD has estimated that up to half a million public sector jobs could go within the next 5 years, whoever wins the next Election. Is this realistic and how does it sit in historic trends?
Posted in Performance, Politics, Spending, Whitehall
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Lib Dems – a mysterious £860m saving?
The Liberal Democrats are making a great deal of how honest, detailed and clear they are being about the needs for ‘tough choices’ in public spending. And by and large they do seem to be, but there are some areas … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Politics, Spending
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NIC ‘jobs tax’ versus ‘Efficiency’ jobs cuts – NICs wins
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How Big an “Ask” Are the Tories Efficiency Plans?
Today David Cameron has been saying all day that the Tories efficiency savings amount to asking the government to save ‘£1 in every £100 that it spends’ and this is obviously ‘do-able’. On one level this is true, but only:
Posted in Performance, Politics, Spending, Whitehall
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What Did You Do in the Efficiency Wars, Daddy?
The Election campaign was almost completely dominated by efficiency issues yesterday, as Labour tried to dis the Tories plans to pay for not raising NIC by even more “savings”. As a result, I ended up doing radio, TV, and several … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Spending, Whitehall
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NHS Efficiency Target: Confusion Reigns
Confusion reigns in government over what the efficiency targets are for the NHS. To recap: in the Budget (para 6.14) it says that by 2013-14 the health service will be making annual efficiency savings of between £15bn and £20bn – … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Spending
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Budget, What Budget?
This must be the most non-Budget in British history. No significant changes to taxation, or spending, over those already announced in the Pre Budget Report last autumn.
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Is the Future Scary?
We took my 5 year-old son to see a ‘Horrid Henry’ show after Christmas. At one point in the production Horrid Henry is trying to convince his little brother Peter Perfect that he’s been to the future. “What’s the future … Continue reading
Lord make me chaste, but not yet
The central message of yesterday’s PBR was that we need to put the national finances in order, but not quite yet – in fact not for quite a long time. That does not mean there will not be severe cuts … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Spending
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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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Cuts – still a phoney war with more heat than light
At last Gordon Brown has uttered the “c” word – cuts. Although everyone knows that some level of cutback in public spending is going to be necessary, all attention has focused on the “will he, won’t he” question of whether … Continue reading
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Colin Talbot
