Going to fetch them

It is clear that Quangos are on the list of "they never would be missed" by the Conservatives, at least in some respects.

The latest thinking in public from Alan Duncan asks about the overseas offices maintained by regional development agencies. These offices cost about £20 million a year. All six RDAs have these offices, in in several cases they are competing with each other. So the North East and the South East offices are competing against each other in Korea. Yorkshire offices in the USA are competing with those of the North East. Each, of course, is also in competition with the national body "UK Trade and Investment".

It is laudable that each is presumably trying to win inward investment for their area, but there is wasteful duplication.

I cannot avoid the comment that we suffered little problem in attracting inward investment before Ireland and other countries reduced their rate of corporation tax so far below our level. If our Government could reduce its waste and thus reduce its company taxation, there would be much less need for these quangos to make a despairing effort to mitigate the effects of our high tax regime.