Who does the PM listen to?

Politicians love to think of themselves as big decision makers. Yet the sad reality is that most of the decisions get made by policy advisors.

At briefings these advisors follow strict protocol to maintain the fiction of this relationship, using the term “As you know, Minister…” before imparting information. In truth the minister may not even know what the advisor’s words mean.

In no department is this more true than business. Since none of the MPs at the Department for Business have worked in the private sector it is the bureaucrats who dominate.

To fight the Sir Humphrey tendency Gordon Brown created the Business Council a year ago. The Council is composed of 18 private sector stalwarts, including Branson and Sugar, and is charged with whispering sweet nothings into the PM’s ear.

Twelve months on and it’s hard to discern what impact this Council has had. It’s met three times. Issues discussed include globalisation and fuel prices. And a working group of entrepreneurs is being assembled to address small business issues.

And that’s it. No decisions. No goals. No targets. No policies.

You’d have thought that a Council with the head of Rolls Royce and Tesco would have got Brown motoring. Axe stamp duty, abolish employers NI, get the new Employment Bill racing through parliament… I could draw up a list of 50 quick wins myself.

So what’s the problem? Too many egos? Too many vested interests? Does Gordon arrive with earplugs jammed in his lugholes? What is going on?

I’d love to see the minutes of these meetings. Because right now the Business Council is as effective as a chocolate toaster.

The eighteen Business Council members:

• Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group
• Damon Buffini, chair, Permira
• Sir William Castell, chair, Wellcome Trust
• Mervyn Davies, chair, Standard Chartered Bank (Current Chair of Business Council)
• Sir Rod Eddington, director, News Corporation
• Stephen Green, chair, HSBC (Chair of the Business Council from January 2009 )
• Tony Hayward, chief executive, BP
• Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, Tesco
• Sir John Parker, chair, National Grid
• Sir John Rose, chief executive, Rolls Royce
• Sir Stuart Rose, executive chair, Marks & Spencer
• Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, Pearson
• Sir Alan Sugar, chair, Amshold Group
• Cynthia Carroll, chief executive, Anglo American
• Lord Drayson
• Ian Livingston, chief executive, BT
• Paul Walsh, chief exective, Diageo
• Andrew Witty, chief executive, GlaxoSmithKline

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By Charles Orton-Jones  on   Jul 29,2008

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Keywords

Business Council    Gordon Brown    BERR    Branson    Sugar    Terry Leahy    Stuart Rose   

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