AAs a British government observer, one sometimes wonders if there are any lights on in Whitehall at all.
Policy-making currently seems bogged down in endless cycles of reports and consultations – at the rate that business groups are tearing their hair out – with the occasional explosion of activity when Boris Johnson comes up with an idea he thinks one of his backbenchers might use could hate a little less.
Trouble is, when government occasionally proves it is capable of taking decisive action, they usually prefer paralysis. Case in point: the grants available to buyers of electric vehicles (EVs) that have just been swiped from among motorists by the Department of Transportation at a highway charging station.