UKIPs undoubtedly successful showing in the (mostly) English local elections has left many analysts speculating over whether this is a sustainable political shift to “four party” politics or not? Continue reading “UKIP: Building a Party when the “Party” is Over?”
Author: Prof. Colin R Talbot
Professor of Government (Emeritus), University of Manchester
Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge Judge Business School
The Scrutiny of Public Spending: Margaret Hodge, Robert Chote, and Amyas Morse, amongst others, to discuss how Britain manages public money.
We are organising a series of debates and discussions about how Britain manages public money. Continue reading “The Scrutiny of Public Spending: Margaret Hodge, Robert Chote, and Amyas Morse, amongst others, to discuss how Britain manages public money.”
SR 2013: Why now and what’s it for?
So, it is now official, we are going to have Spending Review 2013.
First, let’s clear up some confusions – as far as we can – about where SR2013 “fits”.
A Dolittle Budget for a Doing Little Economy?
The Chancellor delivered this year’s Budget with a lot of shouting – but the sound and fury disguises the essentially dolittle nature of his proposals. The main, modest, changes he proposes mostly do not kick in for 2, 3 or 4 years, when most agree what we need is action now to kick-start the economy.
Like the Chancellor’s rather shouty delivery, growth in the economy continues to be choked off and is forecast to continue to be stuttering.
Much of this is as result of the Chancellor’s own actions – by cutting public spending too quickly but also, and even more importantly, by convincing businesses and households that in 2010 we were on the brink of financial collapse, fatally undermining business and consumer confidence.
Mr Osborne continues to blame anyone and anything for the British economies poor performance, except himself and his policies. It is true that world, and especially European, economic performance has been poor – but this is also because of austerity policies Mr Osborne has supported. Other parts of the world not pursing reckless austerity are doing better.
The only real surprise in the Budget is the size of the massive Whitehall underspend of £11bn – including under-spending on investments – are a sign not of good but of very poor control over spending. This money was intended to provide public services people rely on – to fail to deliver them will be a disaster for many.
New newsfeed partner for Whitehall Watch, and on The Politics of Public Spending too
I have just created two new news feeds using the rather useful *Scoop.It*.
One is a newsfeed counterpart to Whitehall Watch with all the news stories I come across that are worth reading if you are into *Whitehall Watching* and is called – surprisingly – Whitehall Watch: http://www.scoop.it/t/whitehall-watch
The other is more narrowly around the topic of *The Politics of Public Spending*, a subject on which I teach, research and advise. You can find that one here: http://www.scoop.it/t/the-politics-of-public-spending
In both cases this is stuff that I find interesting/useful. Posting stories doesn’t imply any endorsement. If you find them useful, please share.
Ten ideas for Democratising and Modernising Public Spending in the UK
The Fabian Commission on Future Spending Choices asked me for some ideas about the public spending process in the UK and here are my suggestions for reform: Continue reading “Ten ideas for Democratising and Modernising Public Spending in the UK”
Putting the Politics back into Public Management – are the times a’changing?
As some of you may know already, I am about to leave a Business School (MBS) and join a School of Social Sciences (Politics) (both at the University of Manchester, so not a big move in one sense). This may be unduly influencing my thinking, but the question I want to ask in this post is: am I part of a trend? Continue reading “Putting the Politics back into Public Management – are the times a’changing?”
Hospital Failure – How do you change cultures and improve practice ? by Su Maddock
Su Maddock @sumaddock
Mid-Staffs Hospital is the tip of an iceberg that has been hiding neglect for many years. It is true poor practice was made worse by the target culture, but lets be honest – abuse, neglect and poor care have a long history . It is not just the abuse that is horrific but equally worrying is the level of complacency among senior staff and their vilification of whistle-blowers. Challenging complacency is not easy and those that do are often subject to ridicule themselves, many leave because their promotion prospects decline each time they voice concerns. Continue reading “Hospital Failure – How do you change cultures and improve practice ? by Su Maddock”
A Capital Idea George, shame about the implementation (only 1.2% of infrastructure projects completed)
I somewhat mischievously responded to a tweet from Chuka Umuna, the Labour shadow business secretary, that the reason that only 1.2% (7 out of 576) government infrastructure projects was ‘completed’ was because there was no-one left (in the civil service) to implement them.
This was flippant, admittedly, but it is possibly not too far from the truth. Continue reading “A Capital Idea George, shame about the implementation (only 1.2% of infrastructure projects completed)”
Targets, what targets? Now Perm Secs targets are “published”
Both the parties that make up the current Coalition government had great fun at New Labour’s expense criticising their “target culture”. All that time-wasting, box-ticking, form-filling, behaviour-distorting, nonsense would be swept away if they were in power. How did that work out then? Continue reading “Targets, what targets? Now Perm Secs targets are “published””
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