So, now we know the ‘how’ if not yet the ‘what’ of the cuts in public spending. “The Spending Review Framework” (Cm 7872) published June 8th sets out how the radical new Spending Review will operate, and it’s rather similar to the old one introduced by Labour in 1998.
Losers Dilemma
One of the interesting processes going on at the moment is the election of chairs of select committees in Parliament, and then the members of the committees themselves.
Osborne Attacks Educational Choice (no, not that Osborne)
The current debates about so-called ‘free’ schools remind me of an incident more than a decade ago which was somewhat seared into my memory.
Welcome to Atlantis
So – apparently I have been to Atlantis. And there was me thinking I was just going on a short holiday to somewhere warm, sunny and quiet….. Please indulge this post, which has little to do with Whitehall or even public management, but I just wanted to share.
Whitehall Plays ‘Pass the Parcel’ with 1st Round of Cuts and Job Losses
The most obvious thing about today’s £6.2bn worth of cuts is the degree to which Whitehall departments have successfully ‘passed the parcel’ onto other parts of public services: local and devolved government, quangos, universities, private sector contractors and suppliers, and others will take the bulk of the pain.
Who guards The Guardian?
The Guardian is running with the ‘Labour’s spending spree’ story for all its worth, but no-one seems to be asking some rather obvious questions. First, the story alleges that an unusually high number of Whitehall ‘accounting officers’ (usually permanent secretaries) lodged formal objections to spending decisions in the last year of the Labour government. So […]
Office for Budget Responsibility – major reform or gimmick?
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is being touted as a really big reform to how the government ‘does’ fiscal policy. Essentially, the claim is that fiscal forecasting will be outsourced to the OBR which will be independent and therefore free of political interference. How does this claim stack up?
Cuts – you’ll have to ‘watch this space’ quite a bit longer…
A lot of media analysts and city commentators have been loosely talking about the forthcoming Budget ‘spelling out the cuts’ that were so obviously absent from the election campaign. It won’t. David Cameron has just confirmed in an interview on the Andrew Marr show that the Budget will only spell out the spending envelope for […]
The New Politics: from ‘wars of position’ to ‘wars of manoeuvre’?
Are we entering a new era of British politics? All the signs are that we are. The Big Battalions of the post-WWII political wars of position have shrunk – ironically it was the Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s that shattered both the historic coalitions that the Conservatives and Labour represented.
Gerry Mander MP is back in the House
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around me Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday And I’ll get on my knees and pray We don’t get fooled again Don’t get fooled again The Who’s lyrics seem especially […]
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