A plea for clarity from former M&S boss Stuart Rose
A talking head on the radio this morning: “We are in a jam, a pickle and a stew.”
That’s Labour leader Keir Starmer lambasting the government as he tries to get a post-conference bounce to his poll numbers.
No, wait, it’s actually Stuart Rose, the Tory peer who is best known for being the former boss of M&S and who now chairs Asda.
Baron Rose of Monewden is such a natural supporter of the Conservative party that you have to be going some for him to go on Radio 4 sounding like a leftist insurgent.
His wider point is that business is struggling to make sense of government policy.
The City can trade off the turbulence created by the confusion, it will be fine.
Actual businesses need some level of certainty – “a clear runway”, as he put it, so they can at least plan past next Friday.
Instead, you have the slightly absurd situation where neither business nor indeed the government know what their financing costs are going to be tomorrow or the day after that.
The government’s bet, the latest one, is that it can get through to the end of the week by saying very little. That markets calm themselves down.
It just doesn’t feel like that is likely.
On the TV, the men trying to offer reassurance are John Redwood and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
At best, both are colourful, intriguing characters who might be a great laugh in private.
They aren’t what is called for in the present circumstances.
Business would be far happier if the chancellor were Stuart Rose. Actually, that’s not a bad idea…
