Then there are the regional growth funds, surely intended to be made available to small businesses. Well, not really. For one thing, the funds are aimed at regions other than the South-East (set up a small business, but not in the City where professional support and a zesty stimulating atmosphere are available). For another, to ease the burden of processing the many applications for limited funds, direct applicants must request a minimum of £1 million, which Lord Heseltine takes credit for reducing from the £5 million level originally contemplated. No surprise that the bulk of the £450 million first tranche (of a total fund of £1.4 billion) went to such fledgling enterprises as General Motors and Proctor & Gamble, with high-tech sectors "relatively under-represented among first-round winners", according to the Financial Times. 

Resources are limited, as the Chancellor repeatedly reminds us, and it does seem odd for a government that professes dedication to free markets to channel such funds as are available to firms with ready access to capital markets. If reports that the plan is being revised to eliminate its big-business bias are correct, that is good news. Better news would be that the government has decided to use the money to reduce taxes, perhaps the surest way to create permanent jobs. But that would require a coherent rather than a programme-by-programme approach to economic growth.   

In short, the government is currently promoting an incoherent mix of policies designed to

• shore up the banks while draining them of capital
• reduce risky lending while forcing banks to lend tobusinesses at rates some analysts say do not reflect the risks involved
• encourage financial firms to set up shop in Britain while taxing their staffs more and limiting compensation
• foster small businesses while effectively precluding them from participating in the programmes aimed at helping them
• failing to exempt them fully from excessive regulation andTreasury harassment

There is more of course: making war while cutting military spending; trying to become more competitive in world markets while driving up the cost of energy in pursuit of unattainable green objectives; trying to assert the primacy of Parliament while remaining a member of a European Union now dominated by 17 eurozone countries eager to dip into Her Majesty's Treasury, while the Chancellor cries poverty and the Prime Minister promises never to go along with increases in the eurocracy budget (apart from when they ask). You get the idea.

The good news is that it is early days: the Economist tells us that the "coalition has not stopped thinking." With the distractions of the May 5 elections behind them, and unless they take the undeniably encouraging results as an endorsement of incoherence, ministers might use their extended summer break to consider their  route in the remaining life of this Parliament. In which of the several opposite directions that they are currently travelling do they really wish to go? By the time Parliament reconvenes, the government will no longer be able to count on the incompetence of the opposition, or on voters' willingness to give the inexperienced new boys a chance. Nor will it be able to blame its incoherence on the fact of coalition or disagreements within the Tory Party. It will just have to do what politicians least like to do — decide.