Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
The UK government was one of a minority of states that voted against the EU ban on insecticides said to be responsible for desecrating the honeybee population. Its rejection of a precautionary approach to this issue suggests that deep public anxiety about risks associated with technological and scientific ‘progress’ is justified, writes Dr Richie Nimmo. In […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Different because we have a new home, and a new family. Whitehall Watch is now part of “Manchester Policy Blogs” – one of several streams of analysis and comment from academics at the University of Manchester and from many other places too. Different too because Whitehall Watch itself will gradually be changing into a “multi-author” […]
Knowledge of science and technology permeates every social space, and is central to the ways we govern ourselves today. This blog focuses on what the current debates in science, technology and environmental science mean for policy and vice-versa. It aims to be a truly interdisciplinary platform seeking to bring together a range of diverse voices […]
By Carole Talbot Filed Under: All posts Posted:
The Political Power of the Business Corporation, Stephen Wilks. Edward Elgar. March 2013. In The Political Power of the Business Corporation, the author argues that making corporations accountable is one of the most fundamental problems facing 21st century society along with terrorism, nuclear war and epidemics. It provides both an up-to-date analysis of how big […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
This is an appeal for a bit of research help from Whitehall Watch’s highly knowledgeable readership….. There is a widespread belief – often repeated in serious academic texts – that any defeat on ‘budget’ or ‘money’ motions in the House of Commons is tantamount to a vote of no confidence. I’m grateful to Prof Philip […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
By Colin Talbot, University of Manchester Britain is still a majority social-democratic country. That is, politically, the most significant finding of the latest British Social Attitudes survey published this week. Most people want a country which “gets and spends” about what we do now, or even more, rather than less. The BSA figures seem to […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Today’s NAO Report on Universal Credit implementation is one of the hardest hitting critiques in living memory from a usually restrained institution. I would say “I hate to say I told you so”, but I don’t ‘hate to say it” and I did, three years ago. But first the NAO’s verdict: “The National Audit Office […]
Post written by Colin Talbot for The Conversation. The idea that competition is better than monopoly provision in public services is now established wisdom among the British political elite. Since the advent of something commonly called “New Public Management” in the early 1980s, privately managed organisations have been taken to be more efficient and innovative […]
Having been established by the government to take the politics out of fiscal and economic forecasting, the independence of the Office for Budget Responsibility is fundamental to its credibility and legitimacy. The appointment of Robert Chote as Chair in 2010 appears to have enhanced the OBR’s standing in this regard, but has not completely swept […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
I thought this as interesting enough to share….. especially as an awful lot of public management reform is predicated on trying to replicate in the public sector the sort of outmoded private sector practices discussed below…. July 30, 201312:49 PM In his New York Times Magazine column this week, Adam Davidson writes about the challenges of measuring […]