Drowning the deadweight in the rhetoric of economism: what sport policy, free swimming, and EMA tell us about public services after the crash

In light of the Coalition government's plans to ‘consider new and radical approaches to public service provision’, this paper discusses the decision making process within central government and argues central government's response to the crisis reflects ongoing trends in Whitehall. The paper explores these trends using sport policy, Free Swimming and the Educational Maintenance Allowance. These funding decisions show the continued power of the Treasury within Whitehall and the extension of the Green Book's economism, along with a specific rhetorical use of economic evidence to present controversial decisions as technical exercises. The Coalition's claims of an overhaul of public service provision reflect the furtherance of longstanding developments in Whitehall's method of policy analysis, displaying remarkable similarity to New Labour's approach to decision making. For those scholars aiming to offer forms of critique to Coalition policy, the paper opens a significant site, and language, for resistance.