When will he learn?

The OECD has recently issued a report which shows that Britain lags well behind comparable countries and competitors in devolving power to local groups and agencies in the effort to get long-term unemployed back to work.

We have known for some time of the Wisconsin "experiment", where the Federal Government concluded that centralised top-down solutions do not work. The result is local initiative which has led to dramatic reduction in unemployment levels.

The secret is to transfer funds and policy making to individual states. For politicians and bureaucrats, it is hard to let go control. In this country we even have quangos, nationally controlled replacing local councils.

Bottler needs a Damascus Road change, to throw away his convictions from days when things were simpler. Now everything is too complicated, as the OECD suggests. Nearly everybody, except Bottler and his fellow travellers, can see it.