So although the government’s record on delivery is weak, we can hardly complain that they’ve recognised their massive mistake in slashing capital spending three years ago – a move that naturally went on to earn them a reputation for weak project delivery as they didn’t have the cash to delivery much – and a move that underpinned the stagnation that has held sway over the economy ever since.

“Unveiling the results of the OECD’s annual education report, Mr Schleicher highlighted the ‘significant’ numbers of British youngsters not in work, employment or training, compared with others in the group. In the UK, those in the 15 to 29 age group are expected to spend 2.3 years on average out of the work force, according to OECD figures for 2011. This is longer than the averages of other countries; in the Netherlands, the figure is 1.1 years, in Switzerland it is 1.3 and in Germany it is 1.7 years.”

if you have a deficit you need to cut but don’t want to cripple the economy by cutting spending during a recession, the thing to do is shift spending from recurrent to temporary – i.e. increase investment projects.

by all means argue that roads aren’t the right thing to spend the money on, perhaps argue that transport infrastructure is too slow to get off the ground so that other forms of investment are preferable, but I would not argue that shifting spending to capital projects per se is a bad idea. Unless you want to please Tim Worstall.