The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) today announced that the Technology Strategy Board will become independent and it will take over the funding of the £178m Technology Programme next year. The new board will fund industry R&D projects, advise Government and help UK businesses to take up new innovative technologies. The DTI also announce a further £50 million funding for technology and innovation.
DTI sets out its priority areas for the Technology Programme and then funds them accordingly. The initiative is a clear example of "picking winners" - government decides which areas it wants to promote over others that might actually be more competitive in a free market place. The government should not interfere and let market forces decide which spheres will flourish and which will perish.
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It's worse than that, she's dead, Jim
And not only spheres, but individual businesses and projects. Not all companies in a field will be equal recipients of government largesse. And government being particularly bad at spotting the best prospects, and in fact being strongly inclined to support those who appear to need the support most (by definition the weakest candidates), will usually direct the money at the least suitable candidates in any particular field.
This sounds like an example of what Gordon Brown meant by devolution. But a government-funded body using government money to fund "independently" selected projects will be no better than the same body before it was independent. Or is Gordon admitting that politicians are either incompetent or mendacious? This will still be government money skewing the market in favour of the least viable competitors, or at least those competitors who can make themselves look best in a beauty parade.