Fishburn Hedges

11.03.2010

All UK business wants is a bit of certainty. Or so said the panel at this morning’s Gorkana breakfast looking at the impact of the forthcoming election on UK business. Hosted by Michael Wilson, former business editor of Sky News, the panel comprised George Pascoe-Watson, former political editor at The Sun, Jeremy Warner, assistant editor at the Telegraph, Dan Roberts of the Guardian and Iain Martin, deputy editor of the WSJE.

Although we were all supposed to be there to talk about the impact of the deficit on the UK economy, the discussion quickly turned to politics and business issues were rather left behind. The panel all predicted a Tory victory in May, with George Pascoe-Wilson being the most bullish, predicting a majority of between 40 – 60 seats.

Interestingly, all the panellists agreed that politics gets the media coverage it deserves. Dan Roberts thinks that MPs are way more evasive than CEOs when it comes to asking difficult questions.

Given that the room was full of communications people, there were strong views on what the Tories were getting wrong. A couple of the panellists were incredulous that the Conservatives didn’t have the election sewn up already, given the open goal created by Labour. Iain Martin thought the lack of an ad agency was reflected in the rather naïve advertising issued to date and they all agreed that a lack of clear, simple messaging meant voters still don’t know what the Tories stand for. Jeremy Warner also felt they are tying themselves up in knots trying to explain a very complex plan to reduce the deficit, when they should just go on the attack.

Social media received a mixed review with the consensus being that it’s just not mature enough to have a massive impact this time. Instead, it will be the TV debates that mark a turning point.

But the panellists agreed that Gordon Brown deserves the nickname Jeremy Warner revealed he has at Tory HQ – The Terminator. Presumably as he’s almost impossible to destroy, with Douglas Alexander and Peter Mandelson taking some of the credit for keeping him afloat.

One panellist even claimed that Labour don’t want to win, with senior figures in the party looking horrified at the thought. He had been told that a succession plan featuring David Miliband is already in place…..

So, when it comes to the impact of the election on business, I took two things away. Firstly, business just wants the election over and done with so that politicians can sort out the deficit, pronto. Secondly, politicians should look to business for some lessons on good communication – not something you hear every day.

Posted by Jo Bradley