Speaker Martin is, rightly, going to be out before the Election and the only question now is how and when.
Michael Martin is not entirely to blame for the current crisis but his statement today is too little far, far, too late. He has to go because he’s more part of the problem than the solution.
The real issue now is – who next as Speaker? Continue reading “Time for the Virgin Speaker?”
I hope this will be my last blog on ‘Expenses-Gate’ but I somehow doubt it – this one ‘has legs’ as the media says.
(For those of you outside the UK some of this must seem positively weird – the scale of the problem is, by any rational standards, relatively small). Continue reading “Moats and Manses, Knights and Knaves, and Fools”
Confession: within 30 seconds of hearing about David Willett’s expenses claim for changing light-bulbs I’d cracked the inevitable “how many Conservative MPs does it take to change a light-bulb…” joke to my long-suffering partner. Continue reading “Expenses Gate III: Hysteria, Humbug and Hypocrisy”
John Redwood, the unreconstructed Thatcherite and leading Conservative, thinks we should be cutting about 20% off total public spending. Redwood is not in the current Shadow Cabinet, but is Chairman of their Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, and clearly still influential.
And his logic is impeccable – not surprising for someone often mockingly described as a Vulcan. Continue reading “The Vulcan is Back, but is the rest of the crew with him?”
First, let me say I hugely enjoyed Andrew Rawnsely’s magnificent rant in today’s Observer. It was hilarious. And it was quite right about many things. Continue reading “Expenses-Gate II: Why Andrew Rawnsley is right, and wrong.”
British politics is currently consumed by a single question – how much did various Members of Parliament spend on bath-plugs and various other expenses items? Continue reading “Expenses-Gate: the ludicrous paradox of focussing on ‘state’ failure when it is markets that have really failed us.”
For those of you who have not seen it, the UK National School of Government’s ‘Policy Hub‘ is a useful resource.
Participated in a useful roundtable discussion on performance reporting and management, organised by Public Finance magazine – for a full report see Public Finance
A flagship policy of the New Labour government was that it would introduce greater stability – no more ‘boom and bust’ as Gordon Brown loudly and frequently boasted.
A key component of this approach was more a ‘strategic’ approach to public spending – embedded in the new 3-year ‘Comprehensive Spending Review’ (CSR) process first announced in 1998. Continue reading “The Death of Strategy in British Government”
So where are we now, after Budget 09, in terms of the size and shape of the state and public services for the future? The reduction of annual growth in public spending to a mere 0.7% in real terms, whilst protecting some big and sensitive areas like health and education, will mean real terms cuts across many other areas. Continue reading “Clear Blue Water”
Colin Talbot - my blog 