Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
What do health care, education, symphony orchestras and hairdressing all have in common? They all seem to get remorselessly more costly to produce. A new book – The Cost Disease by William Baumol and others – sets out to explain why.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The Institute for Government is pleased to bring to your attention the following event hosted by the Better Government Initiative. Good Government – a Mid-Term Review An event to mark the launch of a new report Wednesday 14th November 2012, 18:00 – 19:30
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Out first ‘Policy@Manchester’ Week – 29 Oct to 2 Nov – is now finalised with a great set of speakers and events. For more details got to www.manchester.ac.uk/policy and follow the link to the Week. To reserve a place at an event email policy@manchester.ac.uk
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
I am currently (re)exploring some issues around the nature of the British “administrative elite” – which, for reasons I’ll explain in a later publication, I am restricting to mainly the Senior Civil Service (SCS) for the moment.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The #GreatWestCoastRailShambles has raised again the issue of the competence, or otherwise, of the Senior Civil Service. Ministers are blaming the mess purely on civil servants, whilst others are pointing to a flawed policy. Without a lot more information, it’s hard to know how much of each was involved. But it certainly gives even more […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The inestimable Atul Gawande (author of The Checklist Manifesto) has done it again with a brilliant little column in the New Yorker.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
So, it appears fairly certain now that the Coalition Government is going to announce – sometime next year – Spending Review 2013.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Here’s the summary of my contributions to yesterday’s discussion on the Guardian Public Leaders Network.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
I understand something of the frustration and anger of the relatives of the Hillsborough victims because I had a similar experience – albeit on a much smaller scale. British officialdom has a cult of secrecy and cover-up that is still with us, even if is has gotten slightly better. In 1982 my younger brother Gary, […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: All posts Posted:
The influential book “Nudge” (Thaler and Sunstein 2008) comes from the emerging field of behavioral economics, which investigates the non-rational ways in which people make decisions. Its policy implications are radical – it advocates what the authors call “libertarian paternalism”. This paradoxical prescription is based on the idea of ‘choice architecture’ – the notion that the way […]