“WE WILL never lose our soul,” declared Nick Clegg at this week’s Liberal Democrat party conference. And there was me thinking he already had.
Prior to the General Election, the Lib-Dems boasted they were the only party proposing genuine redistribution of income.
That claim looks hollow now that the party has entered the coalition. Mr Clegg argues that refusing to form a government would have severely damage his party’s credibility with voters. Perhaps so, but being in coalition with a right-of- centre Government has meant compromising on the party’s promises to delay spending cuts for another year, green issues and scrapping Trident. Power has come at a price. Indeed, the party is putting its name to cuts that will hurt some of the poorest regions of Britain most and increase social divisions.
Ultimately, Mr Clegg did his deal to secure a referendum on voting reform. If the electorate turns down voting reform, there will be nothing left for the Lib-Dems to stay in power for. Should that happen, the party’s grassroots, if not the leadership, would insist on an end to the Coalition. It is, therefore, unlikely that this government will finish its five- year term.
And yet the country, and business in particular, needs the coalition to succeed. The nation’s finances must be restored to health and the economy needs political stability to engender growth. Business needs to feel confident about the outlook so it can invest and create jobs.
ONE big theme this week has been the potential for the region to market itself as a cheaper and better place to do business than the South East.
While at the Liberal Democrats conference, I came across Chris Cummings, the chief executive of The City UK. This group’s basic job is to market both London and the whole UK as a good place for financial services firms to do business.
London, Mr Cummings told me, was the shop window, but there was no reason why the rest of the UK can’t benefit from growth in financial services.
Jobs, he argued, could come to provincial cities like Liverpool, Belfast and Manchester as banks and brokers in the Square Mile and Canary Wharf see the sense of locating back-office functions to places where rents are cheaper, salaries are lower and staff loyalty greater.
He pointed to the likes of Rensburg Sheppards and Rathbones. Both firms have substantial back-office activities in Liverpool already. There is also Strategic Systems Solutions, which provides back-office IT to US investment banks in London.
However, none of these firms are big. We have yet to land the really big fish, the sort of US or Japanese investment bank that could create thousands of jobs here. The business case for coming here is every bit as strong for the biggest global names as it is for Rathbones and Rensburg, but it just doesn’t happen.
That’s why it’s all the more important that Liverpool City Council’s proposal to bring Liverpool’s stand at Shanghai’s World Expo, which finishes next month, to London is a good one. It will give potential property investors and occupiers an idea of our potential.
Its also a good idea that the private sector is asked to manage the stand in London. Downtown Liverpool in Business is a privately funded business lobby group with the backing of big professional firms. It represents a more credible voice than the usual public sector quangos.
