UK's present plight will have more impact than any event since WWII. In a tale which sounds like it could have come straight from a Yes, Minister script, Digby Jones, the former head of the CBI, reveals this weekend that he was so frustrated that he wasn't allowed to drive a British-built car he even offered to use his own Jaguar. His request was still refused, although it was suggested he might like to refer the issue to the Prime Minister. The civil service said that Lord Jones had to stick to the Government's list of cars and that meant a Japanese hybrid car. The frustrations of being a leading business figure trying to work with the Government is laid bare in Lord Jones's new book, Fixing Britain. The book, serialised in The Telegraph, also reveals that inward investment opportunities were often squandered because civil servants were slow at responding to requests from businesses that wanted advice. Lord Digby Jones: 'We must rebuild UK PLC' In one example the Canadian aerospace and engineering company, Bombardier, almost abandoned plans to invest £500m to build business jets in Northern Ireland because it had "heard nothing" from the Government's business department. Lord Jones, who was contacted by the company, had to bring in Baroness Vadera, a Government minister before the last election, to solve the issue. Former boxer who built a multi-million-pound business empire that ended in his financial ruinBritain's leaders should come clean over fiscal crisis
Mobs hit West End shops
Lord Digby Jones: how the government's civil servants stifled British trade
He might have been the UK's trade minister keen to sell Britain abroad, but when it
came to which car he was allowed to drive the Sir Humphreys of Whitehall still
insisted it should be one made in Japan.
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George Walker
Sunday, 27 March 2011
UK's present plight will have more impact than any event since WWII.Britain's leaders should come clean over fiscal crisis
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