Three decades ago two American academics published a superb analysis of the way in which British government’s made finance decisions provocatively entitled “The Private Government of Public Money” (Heclo and Wildavsky, 1981). Has the Coalition accidentally given birth to the ‘Public Government of Public Money?’ Continue reading “The Public Government of Public Money – not yet, not by a long way”
It is nice to see that the new lot are just the same as the old lot, at least when it comes to reporting so-called “efficiency” or “waste” savings. Today Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude was telling anyone who would listen that the Government anticipates £5 billion in cash savings this year.
Despite the spin, these are of course not efficiency savings and the official documents are careful to just refer to them as “cash savings” and “waste” – which anyone would be justified in thinking meant ‘efficiency’ savings. And indeed it all comes under the programme called “Efficiency” on the Cabinet Office website. Continue reading “Lies, Damned Lies, and Government ‘Efficiency’ Savings (Again)”
The government is very proud of its Work Programme. It is especially proud of the fact that the WPs private sector providers are only paid on the basis of individual outcomes – do the participants get a “long term” job. Continue reading “The Work Programme: individual versus systemic outcomes”
I have been predicting for some time that some of the big structural changes to public services are likely to destabilise the financial systems in health, education and local government. So it comes as no surprise that tens of millions of pounds have been ‘accidentally’ awarded to new Academy Schools. Continue reading “Academy Schools Funding System Fails – quelle surprise”
One issue that keeps coming up around the Greek crisis is the degree of tax evasion. In the slide below I report the average Greek budget deficit per year on a decade by decade basis since the 1960s (figures on the left – calculated from OECD figures in an excellent paper you can find here). Continue reading “Greek Deficit and Tax Evasion”
The Greek crisis has given neo-liberals a a great opportunity to criticize ‘big government’ Hellenic style – they see the problem as a Big Fat Greek Government (apologies to the film of nearly that name). But as usual the truth about Greece’s problems are rather more complex – what Greece needs is not less Government, but better Government. Continue reading “My Big Fat Greek Government?”
My trade union, UCU, is campaigning against the establishment of “private” universities in the UK. They have a point about the way in which this is being done, which is in my view with reckless disregard for quality and probity issues which could damage the whole UK higher education sector. Continue reading “Universities and the logic of public interest”
An excellent analysis over @ flipchartfairlytales which shows that the root of the Greek crisis is the failure of tax collection and the size of the shadow economy.
My comment was: Continue reading “Why Greece is a Basket Case?”
The NHS has traditionally been organized, like most public services, on the basis of place.
This has been both a control and a planning mechanism. It is a planning mechanism because it uses available information about the demographic and health profile of an area and seeks to match provision to need. It is also a control mechanism, that ensures that spending doesn’t get out of control and that the distribution of resources is fair, in relation to need. Continue reading “Mis-Placing NHS Funds?”
Colin Talbot - my blog 