Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts, Westminster Watch, Whitehall Watch Posted:
The general consensus is this is a “big” Budget with lots in it. It is, but unfortunately most commentators are missing the really big picture, says Colin Talbot. To be able to grasp what lies behind George Osborne’s ‘Summer Budget’ 2015 you need to remember just two numbers: 43 and 36. 43 Modern advanced economies […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts, Westminster Watch Posted:
As the polls open and ballots begin to be cast across the country as GE2015 gets underway, Colin Talbot looks at one possible scenario should the predictions of a hung Parliament prove accurate. It could easily be 5 weeks before we have a settled Government. It might not be, the polls might be wrong or […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts, Featured, Westminster Watch Posted:
Colin Talbot looks at the reality after Scottish National Party claims that they could block any budget if the Labour Party is leading a minority Government. The SNP are claiming they can ‘block Labour budgets’, ‘end austerity’ and ‘stop Trident’. Their problem however is simple – most of what they say is based on assuming […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts, Westminster Watch Posted:
Most of the commentary around the last Budget of this Parliament will, predictably, focus on the contents of George Osborne’s little red briefcase. Few will focus on what might happen afterwards – the Parliamentary procedure for implementing Budgets. That’s because these are usually pretty uncontroversial – Budget announcements usually get ‘rubber stamped’ through Parliament with […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Devo, Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted:
From June, Greater Manchester will get an interim mayor as part of a deal with the Government on regional devolution. But its imposition without a referendum is a fundamental error by the political elite that may well backfire, argues Professor Colin Talbot. ‘Mayors’ seem to have become the default answer of many in the political […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted:
The unwritten British constitution as it affects Civil Service accountability – especially to Parliament – is going through an incremental, but very significant, change, argues Professor Colin Talbot. At the heart of the British constitution lies the concept of separation of the administrative elite from the political elite. This is very different from other countries […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted:
The UK has had a clear dividing line between its political and administrative leadership. In the third post in our series examining the current state of the Civil Service, Professor Colin Talbot argues that the rise of the SPAD and the Tsar is changing this. Special advisors – or SPADs, to use their common acronym […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted:
Over the coming weeks Policy@Manchester will run a series of blogs exploring the role of the Civil Service and how it works with Government Ministers. In the first, Colin Talbot explores whether “Sir Humphrey” is no more. Has the Civil Service moved away from the image of the public school, Oxbridge, pale, male and stale […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Westminster Watch, Whitehall Watch Posted:
Remember the Maastricht criteria? No, I didn’t think so. Nor apparently do Britain’s political leaders, based on their manifestos for tackling the UK’s deficit. The Maastricht Criteria were the convergence criteria for European countries that wanted to join the Euro. Agreed in 1992 (including by John Major’s Conservative government) it covered inflation, deficits, debt, exchange […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Featured Posted:
Today’s Autumn Statement by Chancellor George Osborne was both a report card and a manifesto. It was a (self written) report card on the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government that has been in power since May 2010. But it was also a manifesto for the Conservative-only government George Osborne would like to see after May 2015. […]