Here’s a simple question about the NHS reforms – who’s going to count the beans? Bean counting gets a bad press, but as soon as someone fails to count the public sector beans – for which read “the taxpayers money” – properly all hell breaks loose. Continue reading “NHS Reform: Who’s Gonna Count the Beans?”
Category: Spending
Big Society versus Big State – unpicking a myth
The current debate in the UK about the “Big Society” has been marred by some unfortunate mythology about to what extent the “Big Society” already exists, whether it is growing or shrinking, and whether it is counter-posed to the “Big State”. The argument can be summed up as follows: Continue reading “Big Society versus Big State – unpicking a myth”
GP Consortia will cost more to run than PCTs?
A senior PCT manager writes to tell me that they have estimated that the new GP Consortia – costing about £25-£35 per patient to run – will mean between £7-£10m for their area, whilst the current PCT costs at most £7m. Continue reading “GP Consortia will cost more to run than PCTs?”
Localisation of the Bill
Today we have seen clearly what “localism” means for the Coalition government: localising the bill for the financial and economic crisis caused not by government – central or local – but by the banks. Continue reading “Localisation of the Bill”
Smaller Desk, Sir Humphrey? Reality imitates TV…
The Daily Telegraph reports that Treasury civil servants are being expected to squeeze up a bit and use less floor space and smaller desks as part of Whitehall’s efficiency drive. Continue reading “Smaller Desk, Sir Humphrey? Reality imitates TV…”
Monster Cuts versus Alien Reforms
All pretence that the Coalition government is merely trying to sort out the country’s public finances is long gone. It is a Liberal Conservative government, in the 19th century sense of wanting a small, liberal, state with the minimum of compassion for the ‘deserving poor’ and as little socialized provision as possible. It is setting out to achieve what Thatcher tried and only half succeeded in – reversing much of the great liberal-social democratic reforms of the 20th century. Continue reading “Monster Cuts versus Alien Reforms”
OBR: Dead Duck Waddling?
The Financial Times has now established that OBR “massaged” the employment figures it so helpfully produced for David Cameron last week… see here. By inserting some completely invented assumptions about possible future government policy, OBR trimmed 175,000 public sector job losses from the total, enabling Cameron to claim their job losses would be less than Labour’s. So OBR’s forecasts, which were barely credible to start with, are now shown to have been manipulated in quite outrageous ways. Maybe it’s because I’m in Beijing, but I can’t help thinking of dead ducks.
What do 25% cuts look like? Like this…..
The BBC radio 4 ‘Today’ programme asked me if I’d give them an analysis of what a 25% cut in Departmental budegts would actually look like by applying it to one department: the Home Office (the interview is here if you want to listen). Continue reading “What do 25% cuts look like? Like this…..”
The Budget and Public Services: it really is worse than we thought
Spending on public services is set to reduce by 25% in real terms by 2014-15 (apart from Health and International Development). One quarter of all other public services could go – that is the equivalent of around a fifth of all public sector staff or well over a million jobs. Continue reading “The Budget and Public Services: it really is worse than we thought”
Transparency in British Budgets – you are joking, surely?
We were promised as part of the new politics of the new Coalition government that everything would be much more transparent. Some of this supposed new transparency is proving comical, even farcical, in nature. Publishing the COINS database of itemised government spending, for example, is mildly interesting but to anyone but a researcher largely irrelevant and incomprehensible. Trumpeting this as ‘transparency’ is merely comical, but the latest “revelation” that the Civil Service employs lots of people (shock, horror) is absolutely farcical. Continue reading “Transparency in British Budgets – you are joking, surely?”
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