We are committed to a greener, smarter, even more skilled Britain: one that generates more knowledge and is better than anyone else at turning that knowledge into innovation and economic growth. That means putting in place the right targeted support to help the industries of the future to invest and grow – with an industrial activism agenda for advanced manufacturing, more graduates than ever before, high quality apprenticeships and a Green Investment Bank to unlock billions of finance from the private sector and invest in projects like offshore wind power, where Britain is already the world-leader. We have set out a goal of delivering for Britain a north to south high speed rail network which will result in far quicker journey times, benefiting both passengers and business. High Speed Rail will have a huge impact on the economic landscape of Britain, putting major cities within easier and quicker reach of each other than ever before, creating opportunities for growth across the country and with it many thousands of jobs. And our digital infrastructure will also speed up, with nationwide, next generation high-speed broadband coverage
This is what worries me about Labour. Really, politicians are a bad bunch.
What do you suppose unlock billions of finance from the private sector means?
It implies that the private sector holds billions in finance. That they are Scrooge like sitting on. What a dreadful ignorance to perpetrate. What they really mean is something like PFI, which, as we already know, is part of the off the books dishonesty that places us in the current economic situation.
My angle is that the money, even if available to be spent, is being spent badly, and that is the worse crime in this. How is that after 14 years in power, presumably following a policy to unlock billions of finance from the private sector there are such poor results. How is it that, actually many of the most skilled jobs in the IT sector are being taken up by enthusiastic engineers from India rather than enthusiastic engineers from Tottenham, the constituency of David Lammy, the skills minister?
These issues can only be tackled in the context of a far more circumspect attitude to public sector spending. You know, maybe a project should be on a different time line until home skills can catch up, this seems like a reasonable suggestion.
As to the Tottenham question that is the subject of a different post.