Author: Warren Town, Director of Industrial Strategy
If there is one thing that you learn over the years when you dabble in politics it is that the saying, coined by the poet Lydgate and adopted by Abe Lincoln,‘You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time’ is all too true.
No matter if you simply report the outcome of debates, or provide food for thought, there is always someone somewhere that will not be happy, or feel disgruntled, or put their own opinion on whatever you say.
As an organisation we have published clear positions on our engagement with politicians and political parties and our relationship with Europe.
On the former, we are vehemently politically independent, do not wish to be affiliated to any political party or ideology, and will address any issue with any party that does not support our policies or direction of travel.
This is quite apart from the concept of being ‘politically neutral’, whereby if this was our starting position, we would be impotent and have no credibility with any of the policy formers throughout the UK.
As an international organisation we cannot simply shrug our shoulders, ignore the state of the economy, or political upheaval that is even now destabilising and questioning the credibility of the UK as an advanced democracy.
Too often it is easy to ignore the wider agenda and concentrate on one facet of a problem.
Both the Labour Party and the Tories are now fixated with their own futures, when the main issue is stability. With stock markets, domestically and internationally, trying to make sense of recent days, the last thing the country needs is a clash of egos.
It makes no difference whether you were ‘In’ or ‘Out’, the fact is that there is now a decision. That decision has to be managed, because if it is not there is a lot at stake.
With the ‘promises’ and half truths unravelling day by day, history is now being dissected at the expense of level headed debates about the future and the need to look forward.
Abe Lincoln again: ‘Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.’