Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Stuart Butler Filed Under: All posts Posted:
Today’s nurses have been accused of being “too posh to wash” and lacking compassion, writes Stuart Butler. But unless policymakers are willing to free up their time through further recruitment, or abandon their obsession with targets, they should learn to live with the professionalized work-force that is entirely of their own making. Rather uniquely […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has declared he’d like the Office of Budget Responsibility to assess Labour’s tax and spend policies before the next election. Robert Chote, the head of the OBR, and Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative chair of the Treasury select committee, have both said they think this could be a good thing. Others […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts Posted:
Thinks-tanks get a massive amount of (sometimes ill-deserved) attention, but they are small, usually ideologically biased and carry out only very limited research. We are big, neutral and carry out massive amounts of research – which doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. That is partly our fault, for not communicating our research well enough […]
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 […]