Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The Civil Service Reform Plan announced yesterday mostly rehashes old solutions, some sensible, others of dubious worth – but mostly renames stuff and proclaims it as if it was ‘new’. The cry of ‘cultural change’, for example, towards greater managerial responsibility and accountability has been repeated in Whitehall at least since Rayner and FMI, if […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
It is now a more or less open secret that the Coalition Government is engaged on Spending Review 2013 – a year earlier than if they had stuck to the SR 2010 “plan A”.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Featured Posted:
Geoff Mulgan’s book on ‘The Art of Public Strategy’ is an riveting read, fizzing with insights and ideas. Mulgan played a big role in the Blair government, as a policy adviser and Head of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. He also has a strong history as a think-tanker and author, so his writing is full […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
[Please circulate and respond to them – altho feel free to comment here too]. A session of the Royal Statistical Society’s conference early in September will address the question, ‘Have the government expenditure cutbacks undermined the statistical base in the UK?’.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Some very useful data compiled by Norman Flynn I thought it was worth sharing: —————–
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
I am in Australia as “Accenture-Crawford School Distinguished Visiting Professor” at Australian National University in Canberra. Many thanks to both Accenture and the excellent Crawford School of Public Policy. I’ve been doing a fascinating series of meetings, seminars and lectures with academics and senior public servants from across the Australian federal (commonwealth) government. I have had […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
William Hague (a well known after dinner raconteur and sometime Foreign Secretary) and other Ministers have launched an assault on business people for not working hard enough. Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Hague said: “There’s only one growth strategy: work hard.” This reminded me of a poem I vaguely remembered (and I’m grateful to Richard […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Apology, this has nothing to do with Whitehall or Public Management, but here goes anyway….. Owen (”Chavs”) Jones started a discussion on Twitter to glorify his and others ancestors who’d been involved in what, to him, we’re worthy pursuits like the General Strike. (I or you or may not agree whether this was a worthy […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts Posted:
This book has been causing a bit of a stir in policy circles in the UK – ‘The Spirit Level’ is not another diatribe for or against God, as the name might suggest, but a book about equality. The main message is fairly simple – affluent societies tend to suffer social ills like mental health problems, drug use, physical […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office Minister, says it should be just as easy to sack badly performing Civil Servant’s as it is to sack private sector workers. Which is to say, in today’s Britain, pretty easy. In truth, it is already just as easy to sack Civil Servants (at least in the lower echelons) – […]