Today David Cameron has been saying all day that the Tories efficiency savings amount to asking the government to save ‘£1 in every £100 that it spends’ and this is obviously ‘do-able’. On one level this is true, but only:

The Election campaign was almost completely dominated by efficiency issues yesterday, as Labour tried to dis the Tories plans to pay for not raising NIC by even more “savings”. As a result, I ended up doing radio, TV, and several newspaper interviews. So what did I say? In short, don’t believe any government or opposition […]

General election 2010: the battle over the paperclip vote The Guardian – ‎5 hours ago‎ The trio have been joined by Professor Colin Talbot, the public services adviser to the Treasury select committee. It is probably tedious to get into the …

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.