Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Just 15 months ago I spelt out in an article for Public Finance how much of strain trying to stick to Cabinet ‘collective responsibility’ would put on the Coalition government. I suggested that the Coalition would have to come up with some way of ‘agreeing to disagree’ as coalition governments elsewhere in Europe manage to […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Whitehall Watch today passed a milestone – over 100,000 hits.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Dear Readers, Some of you may know that I have been exploring ideas about why humans seem so contradictory for many years. I even wrote a short, not very successful, book about it (The Paradoxical Primate 2004). I have decided to have another go, with some new and some old ideas. Because this isn’t directly about […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Yesterday I got an email from BT, once again extolling the virtues of BT Infinity* and inviting me to sign up. As I am a BT customer – which is why they had my email – it wouldn’t have been too difficult to check that BT Infinity is not available where I live. (*For those […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Unlike the historical HMS Titanic, NHS Titanic cannot be sunk, at least not easily and not in a hurry. That is the realistic view of what will happen now the Health and Social Care Bill becomes an Act.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
I’ve had a very hectic day today, but one thought has been plaguing me all day.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
In his Budget speech the Chancellor managed to claim several contradictory things at once about taxing the rich. First, he claimed the 50% top income tax rate was raising almost nothing. Next he claimed it was damaging the economy anyway. And finally, he tried to convince us that raising 5 times as much tax from […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The IMF spent much of the 1970s, 80s and 90s promoting what was euphemistically called ‘structural adjustment’ in developing countries. What this boiled down to was shrinking the state – cutting public services, taxes and regulation. What we are seeing with Budget 2012 is a continuing “structural adjustment” of Britain.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
Just a quick note: Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has just let slip on BBC that there will be a Spending Review “over the next year or so” (i.e. SR 2013) as i have been predicting for some time. More on this shortly.