Major parties failing to spell out spending plans Public Finance – Lucy Phillips – ‎4 hours ago‎ Colin Talbot, professor of public policy and management at Manchester Business School, told Public Finance that the public sector had been left ‘guessing’. …

The World at One (BBC) 8th April 2010

With a little help from my friends (see below) I’ve finally got a handle on how the Government manages to claim “£15-£20bn” of annual efficiency savings for the NHS by 2013-14. Unfortunately, the answer seems just daft as the Tories latest efficiency claims.

What will politicians need to do to please public managers?‎ The Guardian Last week Colin Talbot, professor of public policy and management at Manchester Business School, who gave evidence to the Commons’ Treasury select committee …

The great ignored: the big deficit and the big market, by Colin Talbot‎ Public Finance

The launch of the General Election campaign yesterday was most notable for what was not said, rather than what was.

We all know the rationalisation: I just bought desirable item X for £50 less than the marked price so I’ve “saved” £50 I can spend on something else. Of course, the £50 isn’t real – it’s just a notional saving and my claim when I get home that “I’ve just saved fifty quid” is greeted […]

City lets George Osborne make a monkey of the voters‎ Times Online In the case of Rayner, according to Colin Talbot of Manchester University, Britain’s foremost expert on public-sector efficiency, only half the claimed …

Listen to my appearance on the BBC Today programme on 1st April on efficiency