Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
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 […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Hi all, I thought I should give you a quick update. Over the summer Whitehall Watch will be changing. First of all, Whitehall Watch will slowly become more of a multi-author blog, drawing on our community of “Whitehall Watchers” at Manchester, and, we hope more widely. We will be inviting anyone who shares our interest […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
We, as a country, are failing dismally to provide a proper broadband infrastructure. While debate rages around whether or not we’ll have HS2 sometime in the dim and distant future, right here right now we are lagging behind in our 21st century cyber infrastructure. I suppose I ought to declare an interest. I used to […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
FROM: Beyond 2011 Independent Working Group – Save Our Statistics? This is an appeal by the Beyond 2011 independent working group to those who use official population and social statistics in the UK, particularly those concerned with area-based statistics. We are here referring to the rich range of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics which are currently […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Many of us who study public policy academically often discuss just what impact our work has – do we influence anything? With the Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise fast approaching, academics across Britain are busily putting together ‘impact’ statements to show just how much impact they have had. And one crucial area of ‘impact’ is […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
by Colin R. Talbot and Carole L. Talbot[1] University of Manchester Originally published in a CIPFA/PMPA pamphlet here (April 2011). Some of the data may be slightly dated, but the thrust of the argument remains valid and even more topical as a fresh round of 10% local government cuts in 2015-16 has been announced. Local government in […]