Dramatic developments in the Spending Review: it appears that the Government is going to protect the schools budget, in real terms, and that Defence is probably only going to be cut by 10% rather than 25%. What does this mean?

Next week at 12.30 GMT Chancellor George Osborne will rise in the House of Commons to present his Comprehensive Spending Review 2010. This will set out Departmental Spending Limits (DEL) for the fiscal years 2011-12 to 2014-15, and probably a lot more besides. What should we, and should we not, be looking for in CSR […]

“Francis Maude’s much-trailed announcement of his quango cull generated plenty of large numbers: 192 quangos are to be axed and a further 118 are to be reduced to 57 by mergers. Another 171 face “substantial” reform. In total, 648 of the existing 901 bodies will remain – but almost none have been left untouched.” Nick Timmins, FT, […]

I heard, yet again, David Cameron say this morning (on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme) that the new Coalition government had “done away with sofa government” and was making decisions properly around the table – they had “restored proper Cabinet government”. That might not be as good as it sounds….

First, can I apologise to my readers for a little “mission creep” in this blog? I’m afraid the politics of the last few months in Britain have been way too fascinating and I realise I have strayed into commenting too much on them rather than the central concern of this blog – public management issues. […]

To coin a phrase, I agree with Nick (Clegg) – two Ed’s are better than one. Now Ed M has won the Labour leadership, it would clearly be to Labour’s advantage to make Ed Balls the Shadow Chancellor.

The dilemma which still confronts the Liberal Democratic party is, do they want to be in coalition or do they want to be in government?

There have been more ‘friendly fire’ or ‘blue-on-blue’ in incidents as Coalition Forces marshall for the offensive in October.

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.