What stimulus measures should the coalition government take ?
The problem is that the very last things they should be cutting are the soft targets. The real villains – the bogus consultants on contracts on huge bonuses, the expensive, intrusive and distracting statistics-gathering for some social target setting, the renumeration packages all tied up with gold string and guaranteed by heavy penalties negotiated by expensive lawyers on bonuses paid for by the taxpayer – these cannot be touched, and we end up paying more than ever for useless things, even if Government stopped all its productive work overnight. No stimulus is possible until there is a change in the law ridding the Government of all these cosy contracts arranged by Thatcher, Major and New Labour, and allowing a clean slate to do some good at last with public money. What should not be cut are the selective Government investments (not contracts in a “Free Market” out to fleece the taxpayer), rescuing profitable small businesses needing to buy stock or take on staff, whose cash flow has
