Too much waste in public spending

So:

The Conservatives received individual donations of £4.6m [between April and June] - below Labour's £5m - but also got £1.7m of public money for policy development.

Now, Short money, which the opposition parties get to make up for the fact that the governing party has an army of civil servants to help it with policy development, is nothing new.

All the same, it’s nice to be able to connect this money with a concrete output. Like, for instance, the Conservatives’ 211-page Economic Competitiveness Policy Group report last week, which discovered that John Redwood likes tax cuts and deregulation.

And while we’re waiting for the reports from the Papal Denominational Verification Committee and the Ursine Defecation Location Confirmation Commission, we might take a moment to ponder the fact that the Tories are managing to waste taxpayers’ money without even needing to be in government to do it.