U-turn on DTI

May 13 2005 by Brian Amble Print This Article

The ridicule that greeted the British government's decision to rebrand the Department of Trade and Industry as the "Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry" has hit a raw political nerve.

In a abrupt U-turn, the "utterly pointless" rebranding has been dropped and the department will revert to its original title.

A spokesman for the DTI said: "The secretary has been listening to feedback from stakeholders who had identified concerns about the loss of the word 'trade' in our name.

"They also had concerns about possible money that might be spent on rebranding."

The new Trade Secretary, Alan Johnson, said that the CBI's description of the new title as "old-fashioned corporatism" had touched a nerve and that the unions "weren't keen on it either".

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