The poor orphan Varney
I'm not sure who said "success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan", but I do know that there were a distinct shortage of people queuing up to clutch the Varney Review of Corporation Tax to their bosoms today. In his review, the former head of the Inland Revenue comprehensively dumped calls for a cut in Corporation Tax here to match the Republic's 12.5% rate.
No one was really expecting he'd say yes, but flicking through the report's pages I can't find anything in terms of alternative sweeteners. Sir David is being commissioned to carry out another review on how our private sector can be boosted. It may be that its publication time will be more propitious, coming in the run up to next year's US Investment Conference in Belfast, but on this showing don't hold your breath.
Sir David hasn't been put up for interview, nor has any minister from the Treasury who commissioned the report. So the Secretary of State Shaun Woodward was left to put the best gloss on the report. Here, gathering for a North South meeting, the Deputy First Minister and the OFMDFM Junior Minister Ian Paisley Jr. weren't prepared to comment ahead of the report's release (although by this stage Sir David's line on the tax cut was pretty well known). The Finance Minister Peter Robinson has decided not to speak until the Executive discusses the report tomorrow (although in a written statement he has described the Varney Review as "disappointing").
The review is 130 pages long so will need some detailed study (for example, I have some reservations about his use of the equation p = a + b1t + b2 g + gX on page 84). However if Sir David had recommended a slashing of local tax rates it's my guess we would have been beating some of these potential interviewees off with a stick.
I'm 
