Osborne finds 14 billion new ways to waste our money

George Osborne has welcomed the report of John Redwood's Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, which identifies £14 billion that could be saved by cutting red tape and bureaucracy and recommends tax cuts of £10 billion, as "the most impressive and comprehensive analysis of the state of the British economy produced by any political party in recent times". But he yesterday, according to The Telegraph, "made clear that cutting or reducing inheritance tax would have to be offset by 'higher taxes elsewhere, most notably green taxes'."

If you have identified savings, why would tax-cuts have to be balanced by tax-increases? Either he thinks the report is so "impressive and comprehensive" that few of its recommendations warrant implementation, or he has identified around £14 billion-worth of new ways to waste our money, to make up for the savings identified in the report. That's Conservatism for you - preserving important parts of our culture and tradition, such as wasteful government expenditure and pointless, sclerotic bureaucracy.