TSC's Andrew Tyrie attacks govt growth plans

Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the Commons Treasury select committee, has criticised the government's long-term economic policies as "inconsistent and incoherent" and said other key parts of strategy were contradictory, and at best irrelevant.

In the remarks, made on the eve of the Conservative Party conference, he criticised the government's strategy to create a green economy, its increased spending on overseas aid, and the cost of Britain's military assistance to the Libyan people.

"The Big Society; localism; the green strategy - whether right or wrong; these initiatives have seemed at best irrelevant to the task in hand, if not downright contradictory to it; likewise the huge spending hike on overseas aid and the cost of the Libyan expedition," he told the Times.

"In places it is inconsistent, even incoherent .... without the lynchpin of a clear strategy for growth in place, other attempts to provide a more appealing theme than austerity are unlikely to succeed".