Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Claire Hoolohan Filed Under: Featured, Science and Technology Posted:
Last week Quorn announced it will invest £30m in its County Durham factory following significant sales growth in recent years. Claire Hoolohan argues that Quorn’s success is a signal to governments, policy makers, academics, and others that the time has arrived to move forward on the sustainable food agenda. Reducing the amount of meat in […]
By Kieron Flanagan Filed Under: Featured, Science and Technology Posted:
The UK science base must be protected from poorly thought out and badly implemented English higher education reforms, writes Dr Kieron Flanagan. The UK science community has reacted with dismay to the news, leaked to the Guardian, that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (which makes science policy for the UK and provides funds for the UK wide […]
By Ed Cox Filed Under: Featured, Westminster Watch Posted:
During Manchester Policy Week, four leading thinktanks debated what government might look like beyond the General Election and towards 2020. In an abridged version of his speech at the event IPPR North’s Director, Ed Cox (pictured above, standing), says there is life beyond the current austerity measures – but only if there are significant changes to present […]
With a deal having been struck to end the 16-day shutdown in the US, the wheels of government administration are starting to turn once again. But, writes Prof Perri 6, restarting is not a simple case of ‘picking up where we left off’ and the legacy challenges for those involved in public management are significant. […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
I thought this as interesting enough to share….. especially as an awful lot of public management reform is predicated on trying to replicate in the public sector the sort of outmoded private sector practices discussed below…. July 30, 201312:49 PM In his New York Times Magazine column this week, Adam Davidson writes about the challenges of measuring […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
This is the written evidence i presented to the PASC back in 2011 on the so-called cull of quangos, setting out why they are an important part of any democratic state: IN DEFENCE OF QUANGOS why arms-length bodies are a vital part of our democratic system of public administration and what should be done to organise them better.
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
by Martin Smith (York University), Dave Richards and Patrick Diamond (both Manchester University) There is little doubt that the previous Labour Administration and the current Coalition Government have discernibly different governing projects. Despite a rhetorical appeal to the contrary, Labour substantially increased both the size and role of the state, developing a new set of […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
The political debate about public spending in the UK is bedevilled by myths and spin about how much we actually spend. So I thought it was time for a little myth-busting primer, with some pretty diagrams, about how we should be discussing public spending….
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
This week saw an extraordinary outburst from the most recently retired Head of the Civil Service, Lord Gus O’Donnell. He said, on the BBC, “”When governments go through difficult patches you are looking for who you can blame. The issue comes up of ‘well, let’s try and blame the Civil Service’. It does not usually […]
By Colin Talbot Filed Under: Whitehall Watch Posted:
A civil service colleague wrote to me following my previous post about Civil Service accountability, pointing out the role of the ‘Civil Service Code’ in their accountability. He was of course correct to point this out, but the ‘Code’ does not actually go as far as the ‘Armstrong Doctrine’ or the ‘Osmotherly Rules’ I talked […]
