Tories drop a clanger with business

It's commonly assumed that the Conservatives are the party of business, with an outlook which instinctively empathises with entrepreneurial drive, inividual wealth creation and the profit motive.
Similarly, you'd suppose they also sympathise with the instinctive dislike of the public sector which businesses sometimes have (this is not to say one's better than the other - but they are chalk and cheese and will never see things the same way).
You'd suppose, but some businesses in this neck of the woods are beginning to wonder.
We've been having some conversations with senior Tories over the past few weeks about the future of the East Midlands Development Agency.
This is the body which spends around £160m of public money a year on a strategy intended to help engineer the growth of the regional economy, a strategy based on a mix of grants, mentoring and advice for business in promising sectors of the economy.
Organisations like emda are very much Labour's child and the Tories have been suggesting for sometime that they'd simply get rid of such non-accountable agencies to save money.
This uncompromising stance has softened slightly in the face of evidence that some RDAs (our own included) do a decent job, and that businesses actually support them.
It's also looked a little short-sighted when you consider what the alternatives might be.
And here's the rub.
When we spoke to Caroline Spelman, the shadow communities minister, she suggested our RDA should be replaced by an economic partnership which was 50% business and 50% councillors, its activities overseen by local councillors.
Without taking sides, it's fair to say all the major business organisations in the East Midlands are scratching their heads in disbelief at this point.
Why? Councils are all about debate, consultation, lengthy-decision-making and an inevitable parochialism. Businesses, which go wherever business takes them and tend to be ruled by the 'just do it' principle, find that spectacularly frustrating.
Which makes you wonder why the Tories think a partnership ultimately controlled by councillors would be a big vote winner with businesses.
It is, in any case, not  a million miles from what we've already got: emda's governing board is part business, part local authority, part voluntary sector.
But it's run by a chief exec who understands where business comes from and a chairman who used to run Toyota in the UK. They have worked assiduously to keep business onside, and the consensus is that they have given the regional economy a focus which was previously sadly lacking.
The Tories remain in the throes of putting together a report about economic development. The signs are that they may still have some work to do.