The forthcoming National Audit Office review of Revenue & Customs, high-profile alleged tax avoidance cases and Richard Murphy’s ‘There is an alternative’ (Public Finance, October 8, 2010), all...
Why is everyone talking about efficiency reviews and shared services as if they were new ideas? Before moving into a career in international financial consultancy, I worked for seven years in English...
Eric Pickles is encouraging the sharing of local government chief executives. But when councils take this route, the communities secretary then criticises them for the inevitable redundancy and...
The latest state-of-play report from the NHS Confederation is intended to be helpful, but succeeds only in demonstrating just how confused health policy now is, especially over accountability
The two Huttons' proposals for reforming public sector pay and pensions tackle major areas that are in the government's sights for cuts. But how fair are they?
For many politicians, bureaucrat bashing is much easier than banker bashing - after all, civil servants are unlikely to move to Geneva as a result of the political opprobrium heaped upon them
Government and media claims about the salaries and perks of local government chief executives have prevented a serious debate about their role and contribution
The Coalition against the Cuts march in London at the weekend got hijacked. I am not thinking about the limited and intermittent damage by a small number of very excited, largely young people but the...
Three-quarters of universities plan to raise student fees for undergraduate courses to near the ceiling of £9,000 per annum. This blows a complete hole in the government's idea that price competition...
The people who marched on Saturday were not the usual suspects. They included many who rarely march. Contrary to the received wisdom of London pundits, there are lots of middle Englanders working in...
Carnival-like marches might win the short-term psychological battle, but they won't win the political war. For sure, they keep spirits high, build solidarity and remind us that there are millions out...
Private sector involvement in public services does have the potential to bring benefits and efficiencies. But as the cuts continue to take effect, finance directors and chief executives must not lose...
Abolition of waiting list targets means that attention has shifted away from the problem of the backlog of diagnostic tests. One answer would be to give GPs direct access to diagnostics, while...
There is something a bit awkward about a 'Budget for growth' that revises down growth predictions. But how will the measures announced by George Osborne play out with people?
Osborne played his hand as well as he could - he is a sharp political operator - helped on by most of the media that more or less want him to succeed. It is some smart politics to cover a Budget that...
While most people would support the government's aims in promoting economic growth, the question mark is whether today's Budget will deliver what is needed
