Preaching to the converted
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JOHN METHVEN, the new director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, struck the right note with delegates during the second business session of the conference.
His message that there is no easy way out and no gimmicks' to re-build Britain's economy (for full speech see CM, October 29) was just what the members wanted to here.
As one delegate put it: "You are preaching to the converted" and there was little disagreement with the ideas which the CBI is putting forward to bring about an economic recovery.
Mr R. N. Denby (Denby Transport, East Midlands area) asked about the Confederation and its attitude to Europe. "I hope it has been made clear," he said, "that we do not agree with the idea that because an issue had been resolved by the original six members of the EEC it has automatically been accepted by us because of the referendum."
Mr Methven said he "couldn't agree more" with that argument. He wanted to see a lot less legislation from both our own Parliament and Brussels. But that did not mean we would not have to change.
Mr E. B. R. Smith said that it was generally accepted that Government expenditure should be reduced. But there' was a lack of precision about how and where this should be done.
Overheads in the UK had to be reduced, Mr Methven replied, and a new CBI document identified areas where public expenditure had increased fastest.
If a firm was going bankrupt, he went on, it looked to the areas where its costs were rising fastest and took action. This was what the Government should do.
Mr A. R. Butt asked what sort of rapport the CBI had with the present Government.
In other countries Government and industry were closer together, said Mr Methven.
Mr Jack Brown (Atlas Express, Metropolitan and South East) wondered if the CBI had looked at taking the incentives out of being unemployed.
Mr Methven thought that people needed to have more of earned income in order to be able to spend it how they liked. The CBI did not pretend that one million jobs could be cut in the private sector and put straight into manufacturing.