MPs’ report slams the government

A FAILURE of strategic thinking by ministers has been blamed by MPs for a series of policy blunders which have dogged the government.

A scathing report by the Commons public administration committee said the lack of a proper national strategy lay behind a string of “mistakes”, from the Budget to the threatened strike by tanker drivers.

It said too much policy was driven by short-term decision-making and attacked the “poor quality” of national strategy in Whitehall.

The report dismissed the government’s aims set out in the coalition agreement as “well-meaning but… too meaningless to serve any useful purpose” as they offered no indication of the policies it might pursue as a result.

It warned that “chaotic strategy” – just “muddling through” – risked creating a “vicious circle”, where weak leadership led to bad policy.

The committee chairman, Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, said: “National strategy must be informed by a coherent assessment of the public’s values and aspirations.

“This is not about abdicating policy-making to opinion polls, but national strategy must appreciate what sort of country the public aspires for the UK to be. Failing to do so in the long term undermines national self-confidence.”