May criticises business over R&D spending but her Government's Brexit madness is what's preventing improvement

Prime Minister Theresa May is quite right to tick British businesses off for their poor record on R&D spending. They should be investing more. A lot more.

The PM used the venue of the CBI conference to deliver a lecture on the issue.

Having committed to increasing public spending on R&D by £2bn a year by 2021, she said businesses needed to do their part, highlighting figures showing that for every £1 of government support for R&D British businesses invest around £1.70, compared to American businesses, which shell out £2.70, and German businesses, which spend £2.40.

That is very poor, and serves once again to underline the long term problem of a lack of business investment in the UK generally when compared to its international competitors.

But if Ms May had grounds to wag her finger at the members of her audience, they had far greater grounds to wag their fingers at her and her Government.

After all, why should businesses put their hands in their pockets when they have no clear idea of what their trading environment will look like in less than 18 months time?

Currently they enjoy free access to the biggest single market ever created on planet earth. If Britain crashes out without a deal that would come to an abrupt end in March 2019, to be replaced by WTO rules, with all the tariffs that come with them.

A significant, and noisy, minority of the Conservative Party wants that, and she has too often pandered to it.

In Number 11 Downing Street there is a Chancellor who, whatever you may think of him and his politics, understands and sympathises with the position of the business community.

He has worked to put its case and that of the economy, arguing for their interests to be protected. But such is the power of the Tories' Brexit jihaadis that he might well lose his job for that.

The response of Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI Director General, to the PM was a good one.

“The Prime Minister reaffirmed the Government’s full commitment to the Florence speech and a status quo transition. This is essential for firms across the country, providing much needed stability and avoiding a catastrophic cliff-edge scenario."

Pointedly she added: “All in the Government must embrace this: the road to a Florence Deal must be swift and have no deviations. Every opportunity must be taken to reduce uncertainty for the sake of jobs and the economy.”

Were the Government to do that, were there to be something resembling a damascene conversion to the cause of sanity among its Brexiteer ministers and MPs, then Ms May might be justified in lecturing the business community.

But with it facing up to the loss of business from EU partners, and a torpid domestic economy thanks to her Government's misrule, she doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. Businesses are not going to invest unless they can scent the prospect of a return on the funds committed. With the outlook as cloudy as it is, that isn’t there.

The biggest impediment to the investment in R&D Ms May wants to see is her and her Government. They need to sort themselves out. There’s scant sign of that happening, unfortunately.