Whitehall Watch

Can the Northern Powerhouse ignore the digital economy?

By Anita Greenhill Filed Under: All posts, Featured, Science and Technology, Urban, Whitehall Watch Posted: February 27, 2015

The Government’s proposed Northern Powerhouse is all well and good, but, asks Anita Greenhill, where does the digital economy fit in this? The concept of a Northern Powerhouse and establishing an alternative to the dominant ‘London Powerhouse’ has strong Government support. It also has cross-party backing, with both the Conservative and Labour parties proposing their […]

Paying for retirement – the phrase politicians are afraid to say

By John Read Filed Under: All posts, Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: February 19, 2015

The starting gun for the General Election has been fired, with less than 100 days to go before we vote. But, asks John Read, will the parties have the courage to discuss how future governments will pay for workers’ retirement? Financing the state pensions of the next generation of retired workers is a key challenge […]

‘Neither Unified, Nor Uniform – So What Civil Service for the Twenty-First Century?

By Francesca Gains and Dave Richards Filed Under: All posts, Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 26, 2015

In the final part of our special series on the Civil Service, Francesca Gains and Dave Richards sum up the debate and assess the future of the service during a period of great change. The most striking theme to emerge from the Policy@Manchester series of Civil Service ‘stocking-taking’ blogs by Martin Stanley and Colin Talbot […]

Civil Service Accountability to the Public Part III

By Martin Stanley Filed Under: All posts, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 23, 2015

In the latest blog in our series on the Civil Service , Martin Stanley continues his examination of whether senior officials should be more accountable – especially to MPs – for the advice that they give to Ministers. Whatever the strength of the arguments for and against greater civil service accountability, there does seem to […]

Continuity and Change in the Civil Service III: Changing Accountability

By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 21, 2015

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 […]

Civil Service Accountability to the Public part II

By Martin Stanley Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 19, 2015

In the second of three blogs Martin Stanley examines whether senior officials should be more accountable – especially to MPs – for the advice that they give to Ministers. This is the fourth post in our series on the Civil Service. How would officials react to greater public scrutiny? Most of them, I suspect, would […]

Continuity and Change in the Civil Service II: How SPADs and Tsars are changing the Whitehall landscape

By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 16, 2015

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 […]

Civil Service Accountability to the Public

By Martin Stanley Filed Under: All posts, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 14, 2015

In the second of our series of posts exploring the corridors of power in Whitehall, former senior civil servant and public sector chief executive Martin Stanley discusses how we are governed and the tensions between the needs of Ministers, MPs and the wider public. The electorate clearly believe that ‘the Westminster Village’ is incompetent and/or […]

Continuity and Change in the Civil Service I: Is “Sir Humphrey” history?

By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 12, 2015

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 […]

Time to ditch GDP as a measure of economic well-being

By Diane Coyle Filed Under: Featured, Whitehall Watch Posted: January 6, 2015

There is nothing inevitable or ‘natural’ about using GDP to measure the economy. The Office for National Statistics has embarked on a journey toward a more rounded assessment of economic well-being, argues Professor Diane Coyle. Just before Christmas, the Office for National Statistics took a giant step, in its normal low key manner: it published […]