🎈 Is Rishi Sunak right not to see James Dyson?
+ Miles Jacobsen, Football Manager | 100th episode | Oldham
📅 Why Wednesday is an important day for the future of business and govt relations
⚽ Football Manager - 100th episode
🇬🇧 Oldham: How should we think about economic geography
🎭 Be More Frank | Derby County
If you are new here, my name is Jimmy McLoughlin, a former Downing Street adviser turned podcaster. I write this notebook on the most interesting things I have seen on the future of work, jobs, technology and politics.
There is a paradox at the heart of British politics. The government has probably never been led by two individuals with stronger entrepreneurial and business experience than Sunak and Hunt. However, the dialogue between the government and business has never been worse.
Some very prominent business leaders are taking to the airwaves to complain about government policies. In the last few weeks alone, I have seen more negativity than any other of my 10 years working between business and politics.
This culminated in James Dyson writing a letter with 8 complaints in just 186 words, finishing with the withering line:
Meanwhile, the prime minister refuses to meet entrepreneurial, technology-focused employers and investors like me.
The Times wrote a summary of who has been saying what here.
So what is going wrong?
Let's be clear, businesses are often complaining about government policies. They sounded off plenty in private about Theresa May and Boris Johnson's infamous "F**k Business" comment did not bring him much love.
In addition, in this period you have had 8 Business Secretaries in the space of 7 years. That hardly makes for consistent dialogue let alone consistent policy making.
Robert Colville captured the mood well in his Sunday Times piece: "As we squabble over bendy bananas and bash Big Tech, investors are quietly slipping away."
Put simply, the smartest investors in the country think we're a bad long-term bet. And that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Without investment, there will be even less growth. Which is why it's particularly alarming that, of that £1.6 trillion, only £40 billion is invested in UK infrastructure.
We miss Jeremy Heywood. Heywood may have been close to a career civil servant, but he enjoyed business leaders and importantly their company. Heywood would be someone who was relentlessly pushing for innovation and for new business leaders and faces to come into No.10 and across Government.
We used to joke that between us, we acted as the James Dyson relations unit. Heywood was still emailing me a week before he passed away with ideas for how we could sort one particularly knotty policy problem.
To digress slightly on Dyson, one exasperation that I had was that he needed someone to be handling government affairs rather than himself. The company was doing so much across so many Government Departments, that it was difficult to keep up. Many entrepreneurs are sceptical of govt affairs functions, but when a company grows to a certain size, it does need someone keeping tabs on everything (such as making sure letters get answered - see example of Dyson not getting a reply for 6 months, almost certainly cock up rather than conspiracy)
I cited the example of BAE Systems where if you were speaking with Bob Keen or Scott Dodsworth, people in Government knew they were having a conversation with the authority of Sir Roger Carr or Charles Woodburn. These were PA / Corp Affairs Directors / GR Directors in the top 1% - Dyson had the ability to attract them if they wanted.
As I have written recently, the collapse of the CBI means there is a changing of the guard moment between business and government, for anyone new here that piece is here.
So what does or should the future look like?
I think there is a far deeper cultural aspect to how we approach business, partly through our media which is oversaturated with political content, and if anything is pulling back on business and economic shows. I wrote about this last May.
At the heart of the more recent problems though, I believe lies a bit of stagnation from businesses and politicians alike. Brexit, a pandemic and a war in Europe culminating in very high inflation has had an exhausting impact on our economy. Artificial Intelligence could lead to major productivity gains, but that won't work through the system (trickle down if you were) for a number of years.
I genuinely believe there has never been a better time for business in the UK to be making its case with two natural supporters in Sunak and Hunt and a credible Labour Party in Starmer and Reeves who are clearly listening. Even if the latter did launch a surprising attack on supermarkets for profiteering last week - when profit margins are less than 4% it seems tough to accuse those of profiteering, Tesco and Sainsbury’s alone employ more than half a million - that is more than the number of people employed in the coal industry in 1970.
But ultimately at the crux of everything is that business and government do not seem to have a clear idea of what they want from each other and that is probably the biggest challenge at the moment.
Nils Pratley in The Guardian said with the CBI off the pitch, it was now time to hand the Captain’s armband to the British Chambers of Commerce, a pitch that was similarly echoed by Martha Lane Fox, the President of the BCC in the Sunday Times.
Wednesday is a big day, as the British Chambers of Commerce will host its annual conference.
Will the stand in striker take the opportunity to step up to the plate?
⚽ Football Manager - 100th episode
And that neatly brings us to our 100th episode of Jimmy’s Jobs with the wonderful Miles Jacobsen of Football Manager.
FM which has been going 30 years, now employs 300 people on the Olympic Park at HereEast and has 1,500 scouts and researchers across the world.
It was fascinating to listen to what Miles thinks is important when it comes to skills, it is not just programming and ‘traditional’ computer skills, but also English language when it comes to narrative development.
Also how he sees the women’s game and India as big opportunities (FM must be one of our most recognisable exports)
The video games is a jewel in the crown of the British economy, we and policymakers need to understand the economics behind it more than we do.
This episode was for 16 year old Jimmy …
Please do share this email with someone who may enjoy this episode.
🇬🇧 Oldham: How should we think about economic geography
Terrific piece from The Mill, diving deep into the challenges faced by Oldham.
Interestingly the challenges faced by Oldham are mirrored by how its football team was in the premiership 30 years ago.
It has recently been taken over by local businessman, Frank Rothwell, who is a favourite of this newsletter and is the man behind our ‘be more Frank’ section.
As an aside, I interviewed Joshi, the founder of Manchester Mill about how he is attempting to grow local journalism after many years of decline, they have recently expanded to Sheffield and Liverpool.
That episode will be out in a few weeks, and it is a cracker.
🎭 Be More Frank | Derby County
Unfortunately, this section is much trickier to include now, because you cannot embed Twitter links to the email anymore, as Twitter have stopped Substack from using API’s, so we will be having a break - will just have to make the podcast funnier, Ed.
Although, you might be amused to know Derby County dropped out of the playoffs losing to Sheffield Wednesday on the last day of the season.
Ironically if we had drawn we would have played Sheff Wed, who proceeded to lose their first leg to Peterborough 4-0 ….
Something for everyone to enjoy there.
✍️ This notebook is not possible without …
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