The Civil Service Reform Plan announced yesterday mostly rehashes old solutions, some sensible, others of dubious worth – but mostly renames stuff and proclaims it as if it was ‘new’. The cry of ‘cultural change’, for example, towards greater managerial responsibility and accountability has been repeated in Whitehall at least since Rayner and FMI, if not Fulton. If it still hasn’t happened after 5 decades (depending on where you count from) it raises rather fundamental issues, surely? Continue reading “The Civil Service Reform Plan – Mostly Old Wine in Very Old, but relabelled, Bottles.”
Category: Whitehall
Spending Review 2013 Watch #SR2013
It is now a more or less open secret that the Coalition Government is engaged on Spending Review 2013 – a year earlier than if they had stuck to the SR 2010 “plan A”. Continue reading “Spending Review 2013 Watch #SR2013”
Appeal for examples of reduced research and statistics since 2010 cutbacks
[Please circulate and respond to them – altho feel free to comment here too].
A session of the Royal Statistical Society’s conference early in September will address the question, ‘Have the government expenditure cutbacks undermined the statistical base in the UK?’. Continue reading “Appeal for examples of reduced research and statistics since 2010 cutbacks”
Debts and deficits, UK trends and European comparisons. by Norman Flynn
Some very useful data compiled by Norman Flynn I thought it was worth sharing:
—————– Continue reading “Debts and deficits, UK trends and European comparisons. by Norman Flynn”
Surpluses, Budgets, Parliament, and Accountability Down Under (Australia): some random thoughts
I am in Australia as “Accenture-Crawford School Distinguished Visiting Professor” at Australian National University in Canberra. Many thanks to both Accenture and the excellent Crawford School of Public Policy.
I’ve been doing a fascinating series of meetings, seminars and lectures with academics and senior public servants from across the Australian federal (commonwealth) government. I have had generous access to the ‘corridors of power’ including with a wide range of Prime Ministers and Cabinet (PM&C) officials, Department of Finance and Deregulation (DOFR) officials, and the Clerk to the Senate. And many academic colleagues have been helping me get my head around Australian Federal Government procedures.
Here’s a few, fairly random, thoughts about it: Continue reading “Surpluses, Budgets, Parliament, and Accountability Down Under (Australia): some random thoughts”
Business has forfeited the confidence of the Government and can win it back only by working harder
William Hague (a well known after dinner raconteur and sometime Foreign Secretary) and other Ministers have launched an assault on business people for not working hard enough. Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Hague said: “There’s only one growth strategy: work hard.”
This reminded me of a poem I vaguely remembered (and I’m grateful to Richard Kerley for reminding me which one it was). It was Bertold Brecht who wrote about the 1953 uprising in East Germany against the Socialist Unity (communist) government:
After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Who Do You Think You Are?
Apology, this has nothing to do with Whitehall or Public Management, but here goes anyway…..
Owen (”Chavs”) Jones started a discussion on Twitter to glorify his and others ancestors who’d been involved in what, to him, we’re worthy pursuits like the General Strike. (I or you or may not agree whether this was a worthy pursuit, but that’s not the issue). Clearly, he’d been watching too many episodes of “Who Do You Think You Are?”
I had the temerity to question this, pointing out it was somewhat ”North Korean” to think that inheritance somehow conferred or reinforced your political credentials. Continue reading “Who Do You Think You Are?”
‘Poor Performers’ in the Civil Service – blame the poor bloody infantry
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office Minister, says it should be just as easy to sack badly performing Civil Servant’s as it is to sack private sector workers. Which is to say, in today’s Britain, pretty easy. In truth, it is already just as easy to sack Civil Servants (at least in the lower echelons) – so if it doesn’t happen it’s not because of the rules. Continue reading “‘Poor Performers’ in the Civil Service – blame the poor bloody infantry”
Government U-turn on jump-jets – MBS research shows it could have been avoided.
My colleague at MBS, Michael Pryce, sends this:
On 10 May 2012 Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond announces that the UK will revert to plans to buy the jump jet version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, to save billions of pounds in potential costs. Continue reading “Government U-turn on jump-jets – MBS research shows it could have been avoided.”
Andy Coulson and and his non ‘Developed Vetting’ – why on earth did the Civil Service let this happen?
Let’s start by saying I have been through the ‘Developed Vetting’ (DV) process. I can’t tell you why, because then I’d have to kill you (a joke, of course). Continue reading “Andy Coulson and and his non ‘Developed Vetting’ – why on earth did the Civil Service let this happen?”
Colin Talbot - my blog 