Lib Dems want DTI scrapped
The Liberal Democrats are calling for the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to be scrapped, claiming ‘there is no need for an industrial welfare state’.
Liberal Democrat shadow Trade & Industry Spokesman, Vince Cable, told the party conference that the £3.4 billion given to the DTI would be better spent on public services and education.
Dr Cable claimed that the vast sums of public money spent by the DTI under writing the liabilities of the bankrupt nuclear power industry and the hundreds of millions a year spent subsidising arms exports is a waste of money.
The Liberal Democrats want to see the DTI replaced with a Department for the Consumer, in the belief that it is consumers not producers who need more protection.
Dr Cable argued that the DTI could not continue as ‘poacher and gamekeeper’, promoting business and protecting consumers.
Under the proposals, the new department would bring together the principal consumer protection agencies such as the Office of Fair Trading, the Competition Commission and the Food Standards agency, ensuring that consumer protection was at the forefront.
Dr Cable commented; ‘The DTI, and its army of Sir Humphrey’s, should be scrapped. The £3.4billion slush fund the Government has legislated for to provide unspecified industrial assistance, or the hundreds of millions spent each year subsidising arms exports, can surely be better spent. It would be better spent on education -the real driver of a modern knowledge economy – or, for that matter, giving the taxpayers their money back.’
Dr Cable accused the Prime Minister, Tony Blair and the Conservatives of seeking to imitate the ‘new model of capitalism’ being fashioned in George Bush’s America where free trade is preached but practices protectionism whenever imports ‘threaten the interests of the President’s friends and party supporters’.
The Lib Dems called for action against over-charging by the cartel of clearing banks; and the breaking of the monopolistic grip of newspaper distributors over newsagents and of supermarkets over small farmers.
Dr Cable added: ‘The Liberal Democrats have never been a socialist party. We have always believed in setting people free, not cutting them down to size. This applies to business too. We must resist measures which strangle business with red tape from Whitehall and Brussels or with Byzantine tax regulations: the hallmarks of a Brown economy.’
