The Business Council for Britain, Gordon Brown’s forum of 16 captains of industry, has set out its stall as apolitical and with no ambition in that direction.
Chairman of the group, Mervyn Davies - also Standard Chartered’s chair - feels the diametric opposition that exists in Westminster adds no value to their mission.
The council was set up last year and was viewed, cynically, as a conduit for the PM’s views and agenda; publicly there has been little visible output from members’ meetings with cabinet ministers. The assumption is they are doing some good.
Oddly, if you Google them, you can’t find them; that takes some doing.
Stressing the non-political interests of the group and countering the shadow business secretary, Alan Duncan’s comparison to a PM’s ‘Trophy Cabinet’, Mr Davies commented, “If it’s a talking shop, I’ve no interest in it. I wouldn’t do it.”
The council’s focus has been on pushing the issues of skills, innovation and sovereign wealth funds - the latter being a promotional focus of Gordon Brown’s trip to China in January - perhaps allegorically - the one when he started off by watching a crash-landing at Heathrow.
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