Evan Davis’s new BBC Radio 4 series on tax is an excellent listen. one of the most memorable quotes from the first programme was the Revenue and Customs investigator who said that taxation was the price we pay to live a civilised society.

The current “dash to slash” consensus is deeply troubling. The mantra has been repeated so often now, by so many people, that all critical thought about the subject seems to have been set aside.

I was struck by the following statement in a summary of recent discussions at the Institute for Government on the “Big Society”: “Most people solve most of their problems most of the time without reverting to the state.” The summary of the argument for the Big Society, goes on, “families, friends, communities and the marketplace […]

Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, claims in today’s Financial Times that the Coalitions policies are “fair” and we shouldn’t get hung up on “the numbers”. Nice try Nick, but no prize I’m afraid.

One idea to resolve the universal benefits versus targeted benefits issue, at least for the elderly, comes from an old friend Anne Bradford who has, to put it mildly, quite a lot financial experience in banking and as an adviser to people in hardship:

Britain has one of the least corrupt public services in the world. Mistakes, yes they happen. Inefficiencies, certainly – what large complex organisations don’t have constant battle with becoming overweight? But public servants pocketing public funds, or demanding bribes to do their jobs, is mercifully a very rare occurrence, now.

No, not the irritating Kaiser Chiefs song, a real riot. The revelations that up to 15,000 jobs, and 22% of the budget, is probably going to be slashed from the Ministry of Justice – which runs prisons in England and Wales – started that little ditty running around my head again.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Treasury civil servants are being expected to squeeze up a bit and use less floor space and smaller desks as part of Whitehall’s efficiency drive.

All pretence that the Coalition government is merely trying to sort out the country’s public finances is long gone. It is a Liberal Conservative government, in the 19th century sense of wanting a small, liberal, state with the minimum of compassion for the ‘deserving poor’

Labour’s Leadership Contestants – “It Weren’t Me, Guv”? Written and prepared by Colin Talbot for Whitehall Watch. Professor of public policy and management at Manchester Business School. http://whitehallwatch.org