Dapper chancellor woos the crowd

By Bill Wilson
BBC News business reporter at the CBI conference

Gordon Brown uses all his flair to win over business leaders

He may have been up since 4am with a troublesome baby son, but Gordon Brown was determined not to let it show.

The Chancellor is the headline turn at the CBI conference, and delegates this year seemed more than pleased with a typically rabble-rousing performance.

The days when a Labour Chancellor attending a CBI conference would have been akin to stepping into the lion's den have long gone; these days, the back-slapping conviviality verges on the nauseous.

Mr Brown grinned coyly when CBI boss Digby Jones told the floor that he and the Chancellor "sometimes fall out".

Only passing tiffs, however. "I say thank God we have macro-economic stability," Mr Jones beamed. "Whatever you do Gordon, don't spoil that."

Raise taxes?

Storm clouds are gathering outside the conference hall, however. A report last week from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) warned that the Chancellor was in danger of breaking his "golden economic rule" on borrowing.

It is good to see the Chancellor think about the future in terms of stability, growth and enterprise, but it has to be seen though Birmingham businessman Mark Holden

Yet while PwC said Mr Brown may have to raise taxes by at least £7bn to cut the budget deficit, the CBI delegates seemed very pleased with what he had to say.

"I thought it was very good," said Mark Holden, of Birmingham-based firm Invigour.

"I thought he spoke with passion. There is no doubt about it, he is a good Chancellor. It is good to see him think about the future in terms of stability, growth, and enterprise. But it has to be seen through."

Asian concern

Of particular concern, and an abiding theme for CBI delegates, had been the rapidly growing economies of India and China, and the need to compete with them in an era of globalisation and so-called offshoring of British jobs.

As Mr Brown said: "Within 20 years half the world's manufactured exports could come from developing countries. Already China is exporting more than France, Italy and Britain. Asia is exporting almost as much as the euro area.

"Within a decade 5 million US and European jobs could be outsourced. And all the time China and India are upgrading their science and skills with India and China producing 125,000 computer science graduates a year and Britain only 5,000."

The need to increase the skill levels of the UK workforce has been another concern, as has been the need to cut back on EU regulation, which, the CBI says, is holding back UK business.

'Good stuff'

The praise after Mr Brown's speech continued from Sandy Walkington of BT, who said: "I thought it was very good. I think he got out in his speech the sense of what is happening out there in the world, with regard to the global economy."

"The rhetoric and language were very good," agreed Hugh Morgan Williams, chairman of Wearside based Canford Audio and chair of the SME Council.

But he added: "Whether he delivers will be all-important. As an agenda for the next government it struck a lot of the right notes - the need to stimulate enterprise, educate the workforce, and competing in a global economy. All that is good stuff, but it ultimately depends on delivery."