RBSL Connect - May 2007
Tom Staples
As RBSL Connect
goes from strength to strength, attracting ever larger audiences
with ever more key speakers, so the speaker of this May's event has
been going from strength to strength over the last few years. One
of the new breed, a Tory big on green who engineered the thrust of
the latest Cameron campaign, giving an unpleasant shock to the
Labour polls, the Shadow Chancellor Mr. George Osborne is not one
you would have wanted to miss.
In a time when the Labour party has come to occupy great swathes
of what was previously solid Tory ground (going even so far as to
bait us with a tax cut), I and a gathering of around a hundred
staff, students and visitors were all eager to know how the
Conservatives could lead us to becoming a more fair and prosperous
Britain.
In keeping with the setting, Mr. Osborne began by emphasising
his biggest concern for the future of the British economy, the
skills and education base, putting this in a global context by
referring to the astounding growth of the world’s largest
countries, India and China.
These economies, he claims, have gone beyond simply being the
production lines of the world and are now attractive to industry
because of their superior skills base. And it is our complacency,
in the West, which will be our undoing.
Still a Tory, albeit a “New” one, there is of course a mention
of tax reduction; “It is the job of the British Government to
provide the country with the competitive tax regime which attracts
business and investment”, and as an exemplary model of a healthy
climate for growth Ireland and the recent proliferation of
International HQs there, is also given a mention.
Thankfully, the future is not all doom and gloom, at least not
in his own eyes, nor, he believes in those of the international
business community. Whilst the end of the Cold War and the errors
associated with the Iraq conflict have left foreign affairs
diplomats with new and uncertain challenges, he is optimistic that
some of the underlying ways in which we are beginning to interact,
such as, via the internet, will succeed in encouraging both the
cross cultural unification of those with similar interests and the
“democratisation of information”.
On a personal note, he says that, whilst never an easy ride, the
life of a politician is not short of excitement, and in does seem
to emanate a true enthusiasm for the job
Regardless of any uncertainty about what the ‘New Conservatives’
stand for, you can’t help but agree that The right honorable George
Osborne would be a far more charming adversary than his own former
counterpart, the newly appointed Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. But,
as Mr. Osborne himself points out, “anything after him (Brown) is
going to be a light relief”.
So, the first attribute of a successful post-Blair politician
effortlessly ticked off the list, attention is bound to move to how
artfully he can play that most tricky of shadow minister games;
answering the questions on policy plans with gentle derision of the
ruling party.
A broad criticism of the previous Labour government came in
response to a question about how individual services, such as the
NHS, could be managed differently, in terms of “information
systems”. He sees their approach as having four phases; the first,
in which all Tory middle management was replaced with Labour middle
management, the second, a crude injection of cash, followed by a
desperate clamouring for control, characterised by targets, task
forces and delivery units, before the final return to something
with which he has more sympathy “the private provision of publicly
paid for services”.
With Private Finance Initiatives (PFI), a concept largely
derived from ideas of the preceding Conservative government, he
points out a number of advantages, the addition of private funding
and initiative among them, but warns against long inflexible
contracts such as those with which Labour has haplessly found
itself entwined.
When asked about the pension crisis and links with the abolition
of tax credits on dividends, Mr. Osborne described this as a
process which could not simply be reversed. In line with research
done by the London Stock Exchange, the ABI and the City of London
he suggests the abolition of the stamp duty levied on all equity
exchanges as a viable alternative.
Whilst at first a private business school may not seem the
harshest of environments for a Conservative finance minister, it
was interesting to see how the international nature of the audience
brought up some different perspectives on foreign policy. One
student asking for the Shadow Chancellor’s opinion on Britain’s
involvement with the European Union and the Euro, and another
pressing for a justification of the West’s willingness to take
preventive action towards Iran.
Stimulated by the issues raised and loosened perhaps just a
little with a drop of wine and a bite to eat, the audience
regrouped at the back of Herringham Hall for some informal but very
animated chat, which probably continued a fair way after my
bedtime.
Definitely one of the highlights of the year, it was a great
privilege to listen to Mr. Osborne speak, and we are most grateful
that he was able to attend.