Colin Talbot

Colin Talbot (born 1952) is a British political scientist. In 2013, he is a professor at the University of Manchester and holds the Chair of Government in the School of Social Sciences. He has also been an adviser to UK Parliamentary Committees on HM Treasury and on Public Administration.

Life and career

Colin Talbot has had an unconventional career, leaving school at 16 and working in various jobs before enrolling for an economics and social sciences degree course at Manchester University at the age of 21. He did not obtain a degree, instead becoming involved in student politics at Manchester University at the time. He subsequently obtained an MSc from London South Bank University and a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Talbot held posts at British Telecom and at Local Government departments in London. In 1990 he joined London South Bank University as a senior lecturer. In 1995, he was appointed as Chair in Public Policy and Management at University of Glamorgan, followed by appointments at University of Nottingham and University of Manchester.

He is one of the founders of the Herbert Simon Institute, named after Herbert A. Simon.

Colin Talbot is the director of Policy@Manchester and in September 2013 he founded Manchester Policy Blogs at The University of Manchester.

Parliamentary advisor

Talbot has acted as advisor and consultant to public organisations in the UK and internationally. He has given evidence to parliamentary committees on performance and public spending issues for the Treasury, on Public Administration and Welsh Affairs committees. He is a Specialist Adviser to the Treasury Committee.

Colin Talbot is particularly critical of the power of HM Treasury, as a government department, in contrast to other departments including the Cabinet Office, or the Prime Minister's Office. He also criticises the lack of a legal or constitutional basis of UK government departments.

Work

• Colin Talbot's most recent book is titled 'Theories of Performance: organizational and service improvement in the public domain' published with Oxford University Press in 2010.

• The Paradoxical Primate (2004) ISBN 0-907845-85-1

• Agencies: how governments do things through semi-autonomous organizations (2004, with Pollitt, C; Caulfield, J & Smullen, A) ISBN 1-4039-3322-7

• Unbundled Government: A critical analysis of the global trend to agencies, quangos and contractualisation (2003, editor with Pollitt, C) ISBN 0-415-31448-8

• The Alternative Comprehensive Spending Review (2007, editor with Baker, M) ISBN 0-7190-7807-5

Personal life

Talbot lives in Timperley, Greater Manchester, with a wife and son (Alex, born 2004).

He is an amateur Go (game)-player, and has an interest in Aikido.

See also

• List of political scientists

External links

• Policy@Manchester
• Culture Wars review of The Paradoxical Primate
• Public Finance magazine (weekly) http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/
• Colin Talbot’s blog on the Whitehall Village and Public Management