Heseltine has a plan for growth, Osborne barely has a committee on it

Tarzan is back. The best leader the Tories never had ™ returned to front line politics today with a report that is – if nothing else – a clear plan for growth. I haven’t had a chance to examine the report in full yet, and there will no doubt be substantial sections that I disagree with, but it’s clearly a serious attempt by a serious politician to tackle one of the most serious issues of the day. As Katie Schmuecker said earlier – Heseltine is right about many things.

Meanwhile, what is the Chancellor’s plan for growth? In the last twelve months there has been precisely 0% growth, even after last quarter’s bumper 1%. And that bumper quarter includes 18 months  worth of Olympics ticket sales – meaning that we have zero growth, despite a surge of Olympic money into the economy.

Troubling stuff.

And yet whilst Heseltine is urging the government to go further and faster in pursuit of growth, a “Plan B” for the ailing economy has never seemed further away. Perhaps his secretive growth committee could provide the answers? Yet as we discovered earlier this week, the growth committee barely seems to exist. Despite having met twice, the Treasury won’t reveal who sits on it, and the vice chair- Vince Cable – couldn’t remember whether it existed or not.

All of this adds up to a less than helpful point of comparison for the government. At least in the 80s, you could rely upon the Tories to at least exude an air of basic competence as they set about dismantling and privatising the state, trashing communities in their wake. Now we don’t even get the that. We all know that the Heseltine report will inevitably end up in the long grass, whilst Osborne will retain the ear of the PM, and control of the economy.

These are dark days indeed for Britain. A lost generation beckons. I warn you not to be young…