What paucity of ambition!

Councillor David Faulkner, former Newcastle City council leader, said: "I would have preferred a bold decision that made the entire region one big enterprise zone, so that we don’t just see jobs being relocated within the region, which is a risk. Instead, we could use the enterprise zone to see jobs being relocated from elsewhere in the UK." (src)

Dear me, Coun Faulkner, why set your sights so low? I would dispute strongly the zero-sum language of 'jobs being relocated', but the idea is sound: the enterprise zones will create some economic growth in and around the areas where they are set up. So I ask again: why such low ambitions?

Setting up enterprise zones suggests quite strongly that enterprise is in the doldrums, and that government is getting in the way. So let's make the whole country an enterprise zone. It's nice to see Lib Dems so persuaded about the benefits of supply-side reform in their region: time to see them apply the same reasoning to the entire UK.