Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Dear Readers, Some of you may know that I have been exploring ideas about why humans seem so contradictory for many years. I even wrote a short, not very successful, book about it (The Paradoxical Primate 2004). I have decided to have another go, with some new and some old ideas. Because this isn’t directly about […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Yesterday I got an email from BT, once again extolling the virtues of BT Infinity* and inviting me to sign up. As I am a BT customer – which is why they had my email – it wouldn’t have been too difficult to check that BT Infinity is not available where I live. (*For those […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Unlike the historical HMS Titanic, NHS Titanic cannot be sunk, at least not easily and not in a hurry. That is the realistic view of what will happen now the Health and Social Care Bill becomes an Act.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
I’ve had a very hectic day today, but one thought has been plaguing me all day.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
In his Budget speech the Chancellor managed to claim several contradictory things at once about taxing the rich. First, he claimed the 50% top income tax rate was raising almost nothing. Next he claimed it was damaging the economy anyway. And finally, he tried to convince us that raising 5 times as much tax from […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The IMF spent much of the 1970s, 80s and 90s promoting what was euphemistically called ‘structural adjustment’ in developing countries. What this boiled down to was shrinking the state – cutting public services, taxes and regulation. What we are seeing with Budget 2012 is a continuing “structural adjustment” of Britain.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Just a quick note: Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has just let slip on BBC that there will be a Spending Review “over the next year or so” (i.e. SR 2013) as i have been predicting for some time. More on this shortly.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The issue of Ministers’ interest came to the fore with the Liam Fox/Adam Werrity affair last year. Today the Public Administration Select Committee passed judgement on the role of the supposedly “independent adviser” to the PM on the issue. It is not positive – here’s the Committee’s Press release:
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
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 ‘Public Government of Public Money?’