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An ill-starred chamber
It was recently reported that George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, has plans to "require Cabinet ministers in big-spending departments to attend a 'star chamber' ... to justify their departmental budgets" before a committee of colleagues (The Guardian, 24 June 2009).
Yet this idea has been twice tried - and twice found wanting - over the past 50 years by governments committed to "efficiency gains": under Harold Wilson in 1964-65 and again under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
The Wilson experiment failed because of objective constraints on spending: in the case of Concorde, for example, it was thought too expensive to break longstanding legal agreements with the French. In addition, ministers resented having to seek the approval of their colleagues.
Willie Whitelaw, who chaired Thatcher's "star chamber" in the 1980s, was a well-respected and highly skilled negotiator. But only a few cases came before his committee, and the body came to seem less and less relevant.
Osborne's initiative is another of those novelties, beloved of politicians, that promises the circumvention of hard choices.
History demonstrates how inevitable political rivalries, the lack of any "neutral" ministers and prior spending commitments make such bodies very ineffective tools for cutting public expenditure.
About the author
Glen O'Hara is senior lecturer in modern history, Oxford Brookes University.