Just 15 months ago I spelt out in an article for Public Finance how much of strain trying to stick to Cabinet ‘collective responsibility’ would put on the Coalition government. I suggested that the Coalition would have to come up with some way of ‘agreeing to disagree’ as coalition governments elsewhere in Europe manage to do. Continue reading “‘Collective irresponsibility’ as Coalition starts to seriously disagree – between and within Parties”
Author: Prof. Colin R Talbot
Professor of Government (Emeritus), University of Manchester
Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge Judge Business School
Whitehall Watch passes 100,000 hits – thank you!
Whitehall Watch today passed a milestone – over 100,000 hits. Continue reading “Whitehall Watch passes 100,000 hits – thank you!”
Janus Arch
There seem to have been two versions of the Roman God Janus – one with two faces and one with four. The ‘Janus Arch’ in Rome – with its four openings – is said to be linked to the latter. It seems an appropriate image to link to our “four-faced” human social instincts. Maybe the Romans knew something we have forgotten?
(Re)Sources
This post contains a selection of what I think are useful additional (re)sources for exploring our contradictory human nature. It will be updated from time to time. Continue reading “(Re)Sources”
Homo Janus – new blog launched about our contradictory human nature
Dear Readers,
Some of you may know that I have been exploring ideas about why humans seem so contradictory for many years. I even wrote a short, not very successful, book about it (The Paradoxical Primate 2004). I have decided to have another go, with some new and some old ideas. Because this isn’t directly about Whitehall, or wider public management, I have set it up as a new blog called ‘Homo Janus‘ (http://homojanus.wordpress.com/). Over the coming months I’ll be steadily adding new posts, and hopefully stimulating some debate, on this important and fascinating subject.
BT Infinity – Infinitely Unavailable?
Yesterday I got an email from BT, once again extolling the virtues of BT Infinity* and inviting me to sign up. As I am a BT customer – which is why they had my email – it wouldn’t have been too difficult to check that BT Infinity is not available where I live.
(*For those of you outside the UK, this is (privatised) British Telecom’s optical-fibre based network).
Will NHS Titanic Be Sunk?
Unlike the historical HMS Titanic, NHS Titanic cannot be sunk, at least not easily and not in a hurry. That is the realistic view of what will happen now the Health and Social Care Bill becomes an Act. Continue reading “Will NHS Titanic Be Sunk?”
Civil Service Accountability: Who Guards the Guardians?
I’ve had a very hectic day today, but one thought has been plaguing me all day. Continue reading “Civil Service Accountability: Who Guards the Guardians?”
The 50% tax rate and Mr Osborne’s Department for Obfuscation (sorry, HMRC)
In his Budget speech the Chancellor managed to claim several contradictory things at once about taxing the rich. First, he claimed the 50% top income tax rate was raising almost nothing. Next he claimed it was damaging the economy anyway. And finally, he tried to convince us that raising 5 times as much tax from the over £150,000 a year tax-payers was a golly good idea. Continue reading “The 50% tax rate and Mr Osborne’s Department for Obfuscation (sorry, HMRC)”
Colin Talbot - my blog 