Category Archives: Whitehall

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 →

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? 

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 →

When the Cabinet Office advertised their “outsourced” project to get advice about how some other countries manage the relationship between Ministers and Mandarins they made it clear they wanted a think-tank or University to bid for it. This is the … Continue reading →

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 54,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this … Continue reading →

I’ve just been on the sharp end of HMRCs rather dodgy tax computers. I read stories about them spitting out incorrect tax codes and causing all sorts of mayhem, but I never thought it would happen to me.

The final point I want to make is about the “dog that didn’t bark” in Mr Osborne’s Autumn Statement. What could, and should Britain look like After Austerity?

The second major thing wrong with today’s Autumn Statement was the usual political spin embedded in Mr Osborne’s “it weren’t me guv” plea. According to the Chancellor, supposedly aided and abetted by the OBR, the poorer than expected economic results, … Continue reading →

George Osborne delivered his Autumn Statement today to general critical declaim. Let me begin with a rather geeky gripe about the Autumn Statement. It was a mini-Budget, indeed a mini-Spending Review, rather than an Autumn Statement. In this George Osborne … Continue reading →

In a couple of weeks I’m attending a (private) seminar on Lessons from the History of Whitehall Performance Measurement Systems. I have fairly well developed views of my own on this already, but I’d be very interested to get any input … Continue reading →

Please see below for details of available funding for PhDs starting 2013. If anyone is interested in applying to research in the areas of public sector performance, civil service reform, general public management, etc I would be willing to consider … Continue reading →

I appeared briefly on BBC TV nationally and in the NW after the PCC election farce and made some remarks I thought it might be worth just expanding on a little. There were two issues about these elections: were they … Continue reading →

What do health care, education, symphony orchestras and hairdressing all have in common? They all seem to get remorselessly more costly to produce. A new book – The Cost Disease by William Baumol and others – sets out to explain … Continue reading →

The Institute for Government is pleased to bring to your attention the following event hosted by the Better Government Initiative. Good Government – a Mid-Term Review An event to mark the launch of a new report Wednesday 14th November 2012, 18:00 – … Continue reading →

Out first ‘Policy@Manchester’ Week – 29 Oct to 2 Nov – is now finalised with a great set of speakers and events. For more details got to http://www.manchester.ac.uk/policy and follow the link to the Week. To reserve a place at … Continue reading →

I am currently (re)exploring some issues around the nature of the British “administrative elite” – which, for reasons I’ll explain in a later publication, I am restricting to mainly the Senior Civil Service (SCS) for the moment.