On his Mainly Macro blog, Simon Wren-Lewis discusses the undeliverable and unrealistically massive cut to the size of the state that George Osborne presented at last week’s Autumn statement. “It is, as ever with this Chancellor, all about the politics.”

Writing on the University of Manchester’s Whitehall Watch blog, Stephen Wilks comments on the NAO’s memorandum on public service delivery which shows that nearly half what government spends each year is contracted out the private sector companies. “There is a need to recognise the transformed institutional landscape of public service delivery; nested not in the traditional Whitehall model of a liberal-democratic state, but in the New Corporate State where corporate actors become as influential as the departments and agencies of government itself.”

On the NIESR blog, John Forth comments on the Chancellor’s Autumn statement and finds that things are looking up – unless you work in the public sector. “The recession may be over for private sector workers but, for those working in the public sector, there are seemingly a number of years of austerity still to come. The implications for staff morale and engagement in the public sector could be profound.”

On the Stumbling and Mumbling blog, Chris Dillow explores arguments for gender segregation at university events and, in reference to recent student protests, asks “why do universities meet unreasonable requests with supine acquiesence, and reasonable ones with force?”

On openDemocracy’s Our Kingdom blog, Matt Bolton looks at #copsoffcampus and the de-facto criminalisation of lawful protest.