Posted on 12/02/2006 4:23:40 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Dozens of initiatives promised by Gordon Brown over the past nine years have never seen the light of day, new research reveals.
As the Chancellor prepares to unveil his 10th pre-Budget report this week, analysis also reveals the extent to which he has repeatedly commissioned expensive research into the same areas of policy.
His report to the Commons on Wednesday will include reviews of planning, transport and skills. But he has launched no fewer than 21 papers on skills, eight transport reports and six consultations on planning since 1997.
In his pre-Budget report, the Chancellor will try to seize the initiative in laying down plans for public spending for the next 10 years as he looks to take over from Tony Blair.
In his statement, he is expected to revise his economic growth forecast upwards as well as increase airport passenger duty.
He will launch five separate reviews, including a report on modernising the planning system by Kate Barker, a member of the Bank of England monetary policy committee, a report on skills by Lord Leitch, a former chief executive of Zurich Financial Services, and the transport review by Sir Rod Eddington, the former chief executive of British Airways.
However, Tory research shows that Mr Brown has been launching transport reviews at the rate of nearly one a year since 1998. Despite this, the Tories said, congestion is up 10 per cent since Labour came to power and is costing business £20 billion a year.
In 2000's Ten Year Plan, Labour pledged to reduce congestion by 2012, but the target was abandoned by the time of the next plan in 2004. In that year's "Future of Transport" Labour pledged that by 2010 there would be a 12 per cent increase in the use of public transport. In the past year alone, the number of trips taken by bus outside London has fallen by 13 per cent. Children were to be encouraged to walk to school, but in the past year the proportion doing so has fallen and the number driven has gone up.
On planning, there have been repeated budget announcements including a Green Paper in 2000 and a consultation on affordable housing in 2004. Despite this, the Tories say, there are now 320,000 first-time buyers compared with 503,000 in 1997 and eight out of 10 local councils fail to meet the Government target for deciding planning applications.
On the issue of skills, there have been nine budget announcements and 21 reviews. In 1997 Mr Brown proposed a "University for Industry". This became Learndirect which ministers admit "does not have the status of a university".
Last year, he announced that by 2006 every pupil would have "enterprise education" but, asked about this recently, ministers admitted "there is no such target".
In 2003, Mr Brown claimed that everyone on Jobseekers' Allowance would be assessed with a mandatory skills test. Ministers recently told the House: "There are no mandatory skills courses linked to Jobseeker's Allowance".
In 2000, he proposed scrapping older lorries with a £100 million investment fund. Asked about this recently, ministers said they did not fund any such schemes.
The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, said: "Gordon Brown pretends that when he takes over as Prime Minister the era of spin and gimmicks will come to an end, but as this record shows he is the master of announcing initiatives and commissioning reviews that are never implemented and spinning statistics to his own purposes."
Nice to have all their failures in their own handwriting.
Spare us a thought please.
Britain is lost, every bit as much as France, and Brown is further evidence of it. They are a bunch of Socialist, PC Arab-lovers who more and more hate America, and really, really hate the Joooos.
Careful MADIVAN be around to Punch You in the Mouth
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