Expenses-Gate II: Why Andrew Rawnsley is right, and wrong.

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.” →

Expenses-Gate: the ludicrous paradox of focussing on ‘state’ failure when it is markets that have really failed us.

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.” →

Public Finance roundtable on ‘performance’

Participated in a useful roundtable discussion on performance reporting and management, organised by Public Finance magazine  – for a full report see Public Finance

The Death of Strategy in British Government

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” →

Taxation is the Price of Civilisation

In the USA there are reports of so-called ‘tea-party’ protests, modelled on the famous ‘Boston Tea Party’ protests against taxation imposed by the British government on the (then) US colonies. But the US protesters (in reality the Republicans) rather the miss the point – the ‘Boston Tea Party’ was not a protest against taxation, but against ‘taxation without representation’, which is rather different. Continue reading “Taxation is the Price of Civilisation” →

Universities and the Impact of the Recession

I recently attended a ‘professorial dinner’ at Manchester, the purpose of which was to discuss our future strategy. The main message at the start was – universities, after a decade of a relatively benign environment, face a decade or more of austerity. How are we placed to deal with this new reality and what should we do? Here’s my response. Continue reading “Universities and the Impact of the Recession” →

Clear Blue Water

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” →

Budget 09 – What Would the Tories Do?

While everyone focuses on the Governments plans as set out in Budget 09, let’s pause for a moment and consider the Tories options. Continue reading “Budget 09 – What Would the Tories Do?” →

Zen and the Art of Cutting without Cutting

When is a cut in public spending not a cut – when you can disguise it as an “efficiency saving”.

The first big round of ‘fantasy efficiency savings’ took place before the 2005 general election when the Labour and Conservative parties competed via the Gershon and James reviews – the two aforementioned gentlemen being business-persons (in those days when business could do no wrong) who allegedly ‘reviewed’ the public sector and came up with an impressive set of ‘efficiency’ savings. Continue reading “Zen and the Art of Cutting without Cutting” →