Alastair Hatchett's feature 'Paying the price' is an excellent account of the position the public sector finds itself in (July 2-15). The government and the Taxpayers' Alliance have very successfully...
I cannot agree with Alastair Hatchett's view that public sector pensions are not 'gold-plated'. To earn the average local authority pension of £4,000 (plus inflation), staff will have contributed...
The responses of Michael Keene and Martin Southwell to Philip Sellers' letter on the role of the finance director raise some interesting questions (June 18-24)
There are things to like in the health white paper and it’s encouraging that the coalition government is actively promoting choice and competition in the NHS. However, the wholesale transfer of...
The Treasury under the Labour government had plans to set up a permanent UK infrastructure bank. Similar proposals were in the Liberal Democrats' manifesto, so this may not be the last we hear of the...
Councils are already manning the barricades in the face of impending cuts. But we are in a phoney war and a future attack from a hostile public will test their resolve
When New Labour came to power all those years ago, it was regularly lampooned for the way it 'hit the ground reviewing'. All manner of controversial issues were kicked into the long grass via reviews...
Vince Cable's idea of a graduate tax is really a backdoor way of raising taxes further on high earners. The Liberal Democrats want a student loan that you never pay off.
Labour's leadership candidates have failed to address the central issues facing post-apocalypse Britain, and especially their own part in causing some of the problems we now face.
Reforms on GP commissioning announced by the health secretary have been tried before and were not a huge success. If they fail this time, it could be the first step towards introducing a health...
For some, the cancellation of the school buildings programme means the fragile marriage of public and private sectors is finally over. So we should tell your mother, split the CDs and go our separate...
Plans in the health white paper to transfer responsibility for commissioning from primary care trusts to GPs universally and at a rapid pace must be cause for concern. They could set the NHS back by...
Education Secretary Michael Gove's humiliating apologies last week and the tough questions he faced today over the botched Building Schools for the Future announcements should make him reconsider his...
Only 13 per cent of consultancy firms believe that government departments have improved their understanding over the past four years of the difference between management consultants/contractors and...
The announcement from Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude that civil service redundancy pay will be capped at a level lower even than the rest of the public sector, represents an attack on not just...
We still hear a good deal about John Maynard Keynes. The many experts who believe that by cutting the deficit to more-or-less zero by 2015-16 the government is risking a double-dip recession...
The Holtham Commission's report, published on Tuesday, is a fascinating document. It illustrates, vividly, an intriguing maxim of devolution in Wales (and the UK more generally): the conservatism of...
The elderly care market is going through a period of profound change, with significant reform likely under the new coalition government. As the population ages and demand for care rises, the funding...
The coalition government's white paper on the NHS is expected to be published shortly. This will contain far-reaching proposals, and will need to answer ten difficult questions if it is to offer a...
Next month will bring the moment of truth for the record number of university applicants this year. On 19 August hundreds of thousands of A-level students find out their exam results.
The sudden announcement that Sir Alan Budd is to leave the Office of Budget Responsibility after only three months may fatally wound the already less than fully credible flagship reform introduced by...
A true assessment of the value of pensions in the public sector today suggests they are worth twice what the government suggests in its calculation of the contributions that public sector employers...
It is deeply worrying to see the coalition treating the abandonment of school building plans almost as a badge of pride. Cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme can only hinder the...
Pay As You Go schemes may be inevitable on our roads and motorways in the future. Road pricing is seen as an alternative to the current method of road user taxation; though if there were the public...
If those pressing for plans for 40% spending cuts were not senior Treasury ministers, one might have been forgiven for assuming that this was a sick joke. Reductions of this magnitude have never been...
