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Colin Talbot is professor of government at the University of Manchester. He writes 'Whitehall Watch' in a personal capacity.
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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
- The Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything? It’s 43.
- Lies, Damned Lies and Government misuse of official statistics: Select Committee Attacks Government
- Debts and deficits, UK trends and European comparisons. by Norman Flynn
- The UK in 2013: A Failing Economy or a Failing State?
- Greek Deficit and Tax Evasion
- Policy@Manchester
- BT Infinity - Infinitely Unavailable?
- Is the Era of Single Party Rule Over?
- Can Mervyn King do the math? Apparently not......might explain a lot?
- Andy Coulson and and his non 'Developed Vetting' - why on earth did the Civil Service let this happen?
Discussion
- 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?
- colinrtalbot on UKIP: Building a Party when the “Party” is Over?
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Category Archives: Whitehall
Lies, Damned Lies and Government misuse of official statistics: Select Committee Attacks Government
I reproduce here the Press Release issued today by the Public Administration Select Committee – it speaks for itself. Here is the link to the actual Report: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmpubadm/77/77.pdf
Posted in Accountability, Public Administration, Whitehall
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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
SR 2013: Why now and what’s it for?
So, it is now official, we are going to have Spending Review 2013. First, let’s clear up some confusions – as far as we can – about where SR2013 “fits”.
Posted in Whitehall
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A Dolittle Budget for a Doing Little Economy?
The Chancellor delivered this year’s Budget with a lot of shouting – but the sound and fury disguises the essentially dolittle nature of his proposals. The main, modest, changes he proposes mostly do not kick in for 2, 3 or … Continue reading
Posted in Whitehall
2 Comments
New newsfeed partner for Whitehall Watch, and on The Politics of Public Spending too
I have just created two new news feeds using the rather useful *Scoop.It*. One is a newsfeed counterpart to Whitehall Watch with all the news stories I come across that are worth reading if you are into *Whitehall Watching* and … Continue reading
Posted in Whitehall
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Ten ideas for Democratising and Modernising Public Spending in the UK
The Fabian Commission on Future Spending Choices asked me for some ideas about the public spending process in the UK and here are my suggestions for reform:
Posted in Whitehall
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Putting the Politics back into Public Management – are the times a’changing?
As some of you may know already, I am about to leave a Business School (MBS) and join a School of Social Sciences (Politics) (both at the University of Manchester, so not a big move in one sense). This may … Continue reading
Posted in Whitehall
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Hospital Failure – How do you change cultures and improve practice ? by Su Maddock
Su Maddock @sumaddock Mid-Staffs Hospital is the tip of an iceberg that has been hiding neglect for many years. It is true poor practice was made worse by the target culture, but lets be honest – abuse, neglect and poor … Continue reading
Posted in Whitehall
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A Capital Idea George, shame about the implementation (only 1.2% of infrastructure projects completed)
I somewhat mischievously responded to a tweet from Chuka Umuna, the Labour shadow business secretary, that the reason that only 1.2% (7 out of 576) government infrastructure projects was ‘completed’ was because there was no-one left (in the civil service) … Continue reading
Targets, what targets? Now Perm Secs targets are “published”
Both the parties that make up the current Coalition government had great fun at New Labour’s expense criticising their “target culture”. All that time-wasting, box-ticking, form-filling, behaviour-distorting, nonsense would be swept away if they were in power. How did that … Continue reading
Posted in Whitehall
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Measuring Leviathan redux: Public Spending Myths (furthering the debate, I hope)
In a previous post - Measuring Leviathan: Big Government and the Myths of Public Spending - I tried to explain and explore some of the mythology that has grown up around public spending and – probably more importantly – put forward some ideas about how … Continue reading
Posted in Whitehall
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PASC Takes PM to Task Over Ministerial Inquiries.
It’s couched in polite terms, but today the Public Administration Select Committee issued what amounted to a bruising attack on PM David Cameron. The PASC said the PM was wrong to ask the Cabinet Secretary to investigate the Andrew Mitchell … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Parliament, Politics, Whitehall
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Measuring Leviathan: Big Government and the Myths of Public Spending
The political debate about public spending in the UK is bedevilled by myths and spin about how much we actually spend. So I thought it was time for a little myth-busting primer, with some pretty diagrams, about how we should … Continue reading
Posted in Whitehall
9 Comments
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.
This Wine Has Been Corked! The More Whitehall Changes, the More It Stays the Same
By David Richards and Patrick Diamond[1] As another year ends and a new one rolls in, it is somewhat apposite to reflect on the launch of another PASC inquiry into Whitehall which seeks to take stock of the Coalition’s Civil … Continue reading
Some more figures for you: “We have got the deficit down by 25%” – really?
Here’s one worthy of BBC radio 4’s “More or Less”. According to the Coalition government they “reduced the deficit by 25%” – this mantra has been repeated over and over again by Ministers. But is it true?
Posted in Whitehall
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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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The UK in 2013: A Failing Economy or a Failing State?
Maybe I’m being a bit overdramatic (and simplistic) with that headline, but I wanted to pose a question rather sharply – are we busily focussing on a failing economy in the UK when what we should really be worried about … Continue reading
Posted in Parliament, Political Economy, Politics, Whitehall
7 Comments
Restructuring the Social Sciences? What do you think?
My attention was drawn to this article by the head of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Some commentators have been highly sceptical, pointing out the massive recent failures of the queen of quantitative social science, economics, for example. My … Continue reading
Posted in Whitehall
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