Attend a public finance magazine roundtable in London today on performance management. Coming just after the budget it is a great opportunity to debate the economic and financial mess the country is in and what the likely impact will be on public services.
There are some really useful contributions from people like Tony Travers of LSE, John Seddon from Vanguard, Tony Wright MP the Chair of Parliaments Public Administration Committee and John Kirkpatrick from the Audit Commission. Although I am not really allowed to report what people said until it appears in the magazine.
Being one of those who had hoped to see a second fiscal stimulus that invested heavily in local government in particular and public services in general in an attempt to spend our way out of the current recession I have got to admit to being slightly underwhelmed by the Chancellors offering today.