David Cameron, on part of his recent US tour, while not fully crediting our role in WWII, spared no time in ‘bigging up’ UK industry overseas, pledging to “reorientate” British foreign policy towards promoting UK trade.
Following the recent emergency budget by our new Chancellor and his pledge to make Britain “Open for business”, there has been scant detail, so far, as to how this will be achieved.
But this is a positive step, I’m sure you’ll agree. I’m a firm believer in giving people adequate time to do the things we hired (voted) them to do. “Why ‘hire’ them, otherwise?” …is my view.
Snap forward a month and cue newly installed Prime Minster, David Cameron on his first official trip to the USA, where hot dogs, American beers and tidy bedrooms were the lighthearted topics du jour.
In his new role as defender of the realm, well kind of, Mr Cameron met with a number of financial and business leaders in the US, and was keen to highlight the changes to the Foreign Office setup. The main change being that Simon Fraser, formerly at the Department of Business, will be installed at the Foreign Office as permanent secretary to head up this new ‘pro-UK’ mandate.
Following a light lunch with New York City’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, Mr Cameron pledged: “I want to make sure that whenever any British minister, however junior, is meeting any counterpart, however junior or senior and for however short a time, they always have a very clear list of the commercial priorities we are trying to achieve, whether that is pushing forward British orders, attracting inward investment or promoting bilateral or unilateral trade talks.”
Cutting the mustard? David Cameron is treated to a hot dog by NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
Sounds very good on the face of things, and after all this is only one of his first official foreign engagements where the subject of foreign trade would, naturally, crop up.
However, it is also my wholehearted belief that the real emphasis on expanding UK trade should lie a lot closer to home – by giving incentives to UK PLC to reinvest and expand their operations to overseas markets, which will enable them to bridge our widening trade deficit and quicken our economic recovery.
In short, there are many things UK businesses could be doing themselves if our domestic environment allowed, or encouraged them to do.
My main hope with this news, is that it isn’t just talk for the sake of it. That these aren’t just cleverly engineered soundbytes in order to distance Cameron from any poodle-like comparisons to one of his predecessor’s – being “tough on trade”. That would be quite understandable, as the minutiae of the two-day visit – as well as its likely outcome – is being scrutinised by the world’s press, after all.
Not long ago, and without going into too much detail, I delivered this “I told you so” to WordPress and anyone who bothered to read my rant. This was after suffering a nasty bout of “about time, too”, which was brought on by a round-about admission from, well, everyone, that exporting can help the economy.
Even though my criticisms may have been directed largely towards the previous Government, the common-sense approach we’re asking for isn’t a left vs right issue. I just hope the new coalition doesn’t show the same level of help for UK trade, but instead promotes UK export in a systematic way. Walking the talk, you might call it.
Here’s hoping, anyway. Over to you, Mr Cameron…
Do you think David Cameron’s shift in foreign policy will be positive for UK trade?
{“retval”:1,”msg”:”",”data”:{“blog_id”:”1498368″}}
WARNING: Do not follow this advice! This blog entry is intended to be funny, by explaining the opposite of what you should do to succeed. The point here is to exaggerate the mindset of approaching translation as an afterthought rather than as part of your global business strategy.
