Get Rid Of The DTI?

[Anonymous]

I read in the press yesterday about the Liberal Party spending more on Education by getting rid of the Department of Trade and Industry.

I have heard of similar cut and spend proposals from the Conservatives

Are we so wealth in job creation that we as a nation can now afford to just dispense with this department?

I feel uneasy, if only that the Office Of Fair Trading, which is fast becoming the office of unfair trading, actually need pointing out to them the total mess they make with their reports.

on this can I give an example,? their report on chemist shops proposed more competition by allowing supermarkets to dispense drugs, all very well in theory, however giving up our local chemists to a monopoly of 5 supermarket chains is hardly competition more of a massive takeover where we travel miles where once the medicines were delivered to the door.

Also the DTI can be of great assistance with those who wish to sell abroad.

I am uneasy about what I see as ill thought out proposals, there needs to be a merging of help to business into more one stop centres, rather than abolition one by one and leaving us open to multinational cartels.

are others just as uneasy?

Geoff

 

[kyber]

I too am uneasy about such simplistic proposals. Whilst many many instances can be cited of red-tape, wasted reports, interference, etc for any large Goverment, Local Authority, or, indeed, coporate overhead department it is too easy to focus on these "headline" failures and ignore the significant amount of good that is done that is less headline worthy.

Whilst some "hero decisions" are needed to challenge the status-quo and push dramatic and beneficial change-agendas forward, I am always uncomfortable about such blanket assertions of savings opportunities. I spend a lot of my working life working in companys and public bodies and identifying the real change benefits (financial and non-financial) whilst taking into account the practicallity of such changes is always a key component.

I believe that the DTI does benefit many businesses in many ways and believe that a "do nothing" alternative would be more harmful in the long term than the DTI ever is.

Stuart