The CBI reminds me of a Coelacanth: a living fossil, a hangover from the age of the dinosaurs (and apparently staffed by them). Tony Danker, its former director-general, has been forced out over allegations of misconduct. The body itself is mired in allegations of rape, harassment, and bullying. With every new revelation, another member leaves – and the Government refuses to answer the phone.
Founded (by Royal Charter) in 1965 to lobby on behalf of what it claims are now 190,000 businesses, the CBI is a relic of the corporatist state. Built into it is the idea that if all the sensible chaps from business, labour, and government got around the table with a few Newkie Browns and some egg and cress, all of Britain’s problems could be resolved. The intervention of a passing asteroid has long been overdue.
That the CBI has found itself swimming in scandal is hardly surprising. The body has an uncanny knack for being on the wrong side of history. As Andrew Roberts (and our own Daniel Hannan and Mark Wallace) have pointed out, its predecessor was for appeasement in the 1930s, nationalisation in the 1940s, and state planning in the 1950s – and the current organisation was for corporatism in the 1960s, and price controls in the 1970s.
But it was in the 1980s, under the first genuinely pro-enterprise government of the post-war era, that the CBI got the most egg on its face. It opposed Margaret Thatcher’s sanctions on the USSR, promised a “bare-knuckle fight” with the Government over its economic policies, and supported, alas, our entry into the Exchange Rate Mechanism.
Unsurprisingly, it then backed both joining the Euro and remaining in the European Union. It would have played a larger role in the referendum had it not been for some early Dominic Cummings hijinks (naturally, he is taking its current tergiversations in his usual under-stated manner). After the referendum, it threw its toys out of the pram – and even showed some leg to Jeremy Corbyn.
Fortunately, the “voice of Brussels” wised up to political reality. For all the headlines about “f*ck business” and Peppa Pig during Boris Johnson’s tenure, the realities of the Covid pandemic meant the CBI and the Government had to work together. It was like a return to Neddy: the CBI found itself around the table with Rishi Sunak and the TUC negotiating and promoting government support.
With Sunak now in Downing Street, Danker and co must have been licking their lips. Here was a Prime Minister the CBI could do business with. They had worked with him before, and he was a product of the Peloton-riding, Bloomberg-hounding, canapae-quaffing corporate class to which they also belonged. Beer and sandwiches are a bit old-fashioned though, and Sunak doesn’t drink. But still. A latte and Pret salad?
And then along came The Guardian. Since my favourite newspaper published claims of workplace misconduct and sexual assault (including two rapes), the organization has been in freefall. Danker and other staff members have been dismissed. It’s shedding members faster than Spurs can concede goals, with John Lewis, BMW, and ITV amongst the latest to jump ship.
No wonder Helena Morrissey has declared the CBI “finished” and the Government has “paused” all interactions with the body for the foreseeable future. Jeremy Hunt said there was “no point” engaging with it if its own members weren’t sticking around. No more hobnobbing with Treasury officials or after-dinner speeches from Kemi Badenoch. The prognosis must now be terminal.
Friends, I would be lying if I said that this didn’t bring a smile to my face. Adam Smith said that members “of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public”. The CBI is by-word for anti-competitive practices, venal lobbying, and the pursuit of fashionable stagnation rather than economic growth.
If the CBI is sacrificed on the cross of #MeToo, I won’t lose much sleep. Nonetheless, I would urge those commentators currently dancing on the corpse of the “Remain establishment” to keep two things in mind. Most other leading economy have a CBI equivalent – and the Government simply does not have the bandwidth to meet with the endless trade associations that would exist in its place.
Like the IMF, the CBI is habitually wrong because it is staffed by a class of over-renumerated ne’erdowells who all read The Financial Times and don’t understand politics. But the problem the Government has (and to which Rishi Sunak is a welcome exception) is that most politicians don’t understand business. If the CBI did not exist, we would have to invent it.
Of course, one could do the full Vote Leave, stick two fingers up at the lobbyocracy, and enjoy the squeals of the rent-seekers and quangocrats as we bludgeon through the reforms the country needs. Yet that makes you an awful lot of enemies and ignores the fact that businesses will always seek to club together to make their voices heard in Whitehall.
Whether the CBI collapses in on itself, merges with other groups, or is wound up and replaced by an identical body, you can guarantee that the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition will still end up addressing some gathering of the corporate community on an annual basis. The Confederation of British Industry is dead – long live the British Industry Confederation!
You can also guarantee, for what it’s worth, that any replacement body will still end up in some scandal or other before long. Yes, it’s satisfying to see an organization given to lecturing others scuppered by its own poor behaviour. But these allegations ultimately pertain to a few rotten apples in a large and mostly unblemished workforce.
Hopefully, cultural change and a dose of personal responsibility will mean incidents like those alleged do not re-occur. Yet Smith’s realism about human psychology gave us the subject of economics – and my cynicism about human nature suggests to me that we will continue to see farce and tragedy in equal measure, whatever the corporate poseurs call themselves.