Today the CBI deliver a document telling the Chancellor to spend less but to spend it more wisely. This is welcome from ??a group that has??sometimes in the past welcomed large increases in public spending without asking enough about how it is going to be spent and whether it will buy us anything worthwhile.

The BBC still do not get it - they keep on talking as if high public spending were a good in itself, instead of asking what it will be spent on and helping create some pressure on Ministers to spend it more effectively. Their main complaint this morning was that the CBI really wanted a tax cut - and why not?

I often point out that spending the way this government does, you do not get much for ??600 billion these days. The public sector is rife with too much buraucracy and overhead - starting with regional government and all those huge Health authorities. It is bad at buying things, often offsetting all the economies of scale and more besides by its cumbersome purchasing departments and procedures. it is a sucker for expensive computer suystems that are over specified and often not what people in operational roles want. It is especially good at spending lots of money on things people do not want, like ID cards and speed cameras.

Any sensible management of the public sector would be able to do more with less, as Ministers have not been trying in recent years to get value for the billions they pour in.Their answer to every management problem is to spend more of our money on more and better spin doctors, to pretend all is well. Meanwhile illegal immigrants get in, offenders get out, benefit payments are made wrongly,the CSA fails, the NHS computer scheme gets into trouble and the Farm payments system breaks down.

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