In some countries, infrastructure planning can be exciting. Two years ago, I was watching a group of Dutch civil servants gleefully manoeuvring a DeLorean sports car around a conference hall, its wheels squealing on the polished floor.
Why? Because the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment was holding a summit, and the theme was, you’ve guessed it, ‘Back to the Future’. With leprechaun zeal, officials reeled off ambitious long-term plans to invest billions of euros in roads, rail and waterworks: all with cross-party political support.
Compared to the Dutch display, Ed Miliband’s efforts to enthuse British business over his plans for a national infrastructure commission don’t seem so corny. You can’t feel enthusiastic about a government policy unless you feel it’s critically important in its own right, and Labour’s event at the Science Museum today seems to show that Miliband thinks it is – and it ought to make George Osborne up his game.
Both Labour and the Tories have talked for years about investing in infrastructure to grow the economy, but they have struggled to grasp an important truth about how to do so: it is not possible to plan for and deliver infrastructure in the short term.
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